When the person is not known or is unspecific, the personal acan be
omitted:
Necesito jardinero. I need a gardener.
Ese autobús lleva treinta That bus is carrying thirty
personas. people.
Note: The personal a is not used when referring to something inanimate indicated
by a person’s name: No conoce todo Vargas Llosa‘He does not know all (i.e. all
the works of) Vargas Llosa’.The personal ais also used before a noun which indicates a group of people,
and before pronouns referring to persons (specific or not), such as alguien,
nadie, ninguno, usted, otro, todos:
Leyendo ese libro conocí al By reading that book I came to
pueblo chileno. know the Chilean people.
Censuraron al concejo They criticized the town council.
municipal.
No vimos a nadie. We didn’t see anyone.
Recomendaron a otro para They recommended another
el puesto. (man) for the job.Despite its name, the personal ais commonly used to refer to animals for
which one feels affection or sympathy, especially pets:
Rescataron al pobre zorro. They saved the poor fox.
Note: The personal ais not used in contexts such as the following: Prepararon pollo
para la cena‘They prepared chicken for dinner’, Odia las arañas‘He hates spiders’.
Similarly, the personal ais sometimes found before an inanimate object, par-
ticularly after verbs that express ideas like precedence and superiority, such
as obedecer‘to obey’, preceder‘to precede’, suceder‘to come after’, seguir
‘to follow’, superar‘to overcome’, sustituir‘to substitute’, vencer‘to defeat’:
Cusqueña supera a sus competidores en esta categoría.
Cusqueña (beer) is better than its competitors in this category.
Nuestro equipo venció a Argentina.
Our team beat Argentina.21.1.1.321.1.1.21111
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Prepositions