Work Unit Nine: Una excursión por la ciudad
Some people learning Spanish (or any other foreign language) often assume early on that one word in the foreign language always corresponds to a word in their own language. However, we will learn in this lesson that that's not always the case, and some words in the foreign language aren't translated at all.| Read, listen and learn in the About.com
virtual Spanish classroom:
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In this lesson we will learn the main usages of one of shortest preposition in Spanish, a, which is roughly the equivalent of the English preposition "to."
Assignment
Complete the lesson on pages 91-99 of the textbook. Although the concepts in this chapter are easier to understand than some of the verb issues we have dealt with in earlier lessons, be sure you know them thoroughly.As you read through the story, look for any questions you may have about the words and grammar being used. Do you see anything that violates the rules we've learned earlier? You also should listen to a using the spoken supplement to this lesson.
Be sure to complete the exercises. Although copyright rules and fairness to other students using this book prevent me from publishing all the answers, you can check the answer page to see an answer to the first question in each section to help get you started. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them on the bulletin board.
Background
As the textbook indicates, the preposition a has two main uses: to indicate an action toward something, as we do in English with the word "to." It also is used to indicate the recipient of a verb's action when that recipient (known as the direct object) is a person. In the latter case, a normally isn't translated into English.Here are some other examples of the first use: Voy a la escuela, I'm going to the school. Viajamos a Nueva York, we're going to New York. Cayó al piso, it fell to the floor. While a is roughly the equivalent of the English preposition "to," don't think that the English "to" in other usages is handled the same way.
The second usage also is fairly straightforward. Just remember that the a is needed when the direct object is a person. Veo la mesa, I see the table, but veo a la mujer, I see the woman.
Note the verbs in the book that we might translate into English as including a "to" but don't use an a except when the object is a person, namely escuchar and mirar. Thus we would say, escucho el orquéstra, I listen to the orquestra, but escucho al músico, I listen to the musician. Think of escuchar as meaning "to listen to," and mirar as meaning "to look at," so no additional preposition is necessary when the object isn't a person. Another verb following the same pattern is buscar, "to look for." Busco el periódico, I am looking for the newspaper, but busco al periodista, I'm looking for the journalist.
Another usage of a is in the verb phrase ir a followed by an infinitive. Voy a salir, I am going to leave. Vamos a cantar, we are going to sing. If you don't know the present tense of verbs, this is one way to indicate something is going to happen in the future
Foreign words: In the assignment, you were asked to look for something that violated the rules you've learned. You may have noticed the word in the last sentence, cabarets as the plural of cabaret. Why isn't the plural cabaretes, which it would be if the normal rules for pluralization were followed? That's because it's common for foreign words imported into Spanish to follow the pluralization rules in the original language. The same happens in English sometimes too. I've seen words such as breadsticks, jeans and clicks all used that way in modern Spanish.
Idioms: The story in the lesson has at least two idioms, which are phrases that have a meaning that can't be determined simply by knowing the meanings of the words involved. Ones in the story are al menos and en punto. If you buy a dictionary, make sure you get one that has a good number of idioms.
Por: You may notice in the story that the preposition por is quite versatile, having a number of meanings. Although you don't need to know the intricacies of the word yet, it might interest you to read a lesson on the use of por and para.
Coming up:
In the next lesson, we will study the use of another common preposition, de, which is usually translated as "of" or "from."
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