Voted Best Answer
May 29, 2011 - 03:30 AM
Ah, the personal 'a' thingy! Really inaccurately named since it also appears with non-living objects particularly when there is doubt about which is the direct object and which is the subject of a sentence. The basic rule is that human direct objects (and most other animals) are preceded by 'a'. Vi a tu hermana. (I saw your sister. ). Compare with: Vi tu auto. (I saw your car).
That said, the 'a' after está in your example is being used as just a regular old preposition. It roughly translates to 'at'. That bank is at a half block away..... It's the same usage as in 'a su izquierda'. You may be confused because you are trying to do a word for word literal translation of the sentence. The first 'a' is not 'translated' but you must use it when speaking or writing in Spanish. You wouldn't say....That bank is to a half block away in English.
Por ejemplo: Está a cinco cuadras. It's five blocks away.
If it makes your brain feel better, there are thick books written about prepositional usage including entire chapters about the personal 'a'' usage:).
Check out this link for more detail on using Spanish prepositions. http://spanish.about.com/od/prepositi...
For now, you only need to remember the basic rule - use a personal 'a' before a direct object noun, pronoun, etc if the direct object is a human or animals such as a cat or dog or your pet hamster. There are many usage specific rules, but for now, you'll do just fine by following the basic rule.
That said, the 'a' after está in your example is being used as just a regular old preposition. It roughly translates to 'at'. That bank is at a half block away..... It's the same usage as in 'a su izquierda'. You may be confused because you are trying to do a word for word literal translation of the sentence. The first 'a' is not 'translated' but you must use it when speaking or writing in Spanish. You wouldn't say....That bank is to a half block away in English.
Por ejemplo: Está a cinco cuadras. It's five blocks away.
If it makes your brain feel better, there are thick books written about prepositional usage including entire chapters about the personal 'a'' usage:).
Check out this link for more detail on using Spanish prepositions. http://spanish.about.com/od/prepositi...
For now, you only need to remember the basic rule - use a personal 'a' before a direct object noun, pronoun, etc if the direct object is a human or animals such as a cat or dog or your pet hamster. There are many usage specific rules, but for now, you'll do just fine by following the basic rule.