When to use "a" in Spanish

by Alba Castro

Let's see all of the different situations we must use the preposition a in Spanish:

Destination

When we have a movement action and there's a destination and we use a.

These wil happen with all verbs of movement: ir, llegar, volver, venir, conducir, caminar, viajar,...

Examples:

Voy a la oficina por la mañana - I go to the office in the morning.

Llegaste al médico tarde - You arrived late to the doctors.

Volvemos a Italia pronto - We go back to Italy soon.

¿Viajas a Europa mucho? - Do you travel to Europe a lot?

Purpose

You might already know we use para for purposes. Well, you can use a as well but only after ir or venir.

Vengo a recoger los papeles / Vengo para recoger los papeles - I come to pick up the papers.

Voy al pueblo a hacer recados / Voy al pueblo para hacer recados - I go to town to do errands.

Other verbs don't suit this combination so much. Besides, llegar and volver with an infinitive have a different meaning (see section about verbs with preposition below), we wouldn't see this case with these two, as it would be confusing.

Vuelvo para ducharme - rarely we see vuelvo a ducharme because I can translated as "I shower again", not "I come back to shower".

Same with llego a + infinitive, can be translated as "to become" or "get to be".

Time

A la una, a las dos, a las cuatro.... this is the only time we translate a as "at".

¿Te recojo a las cuatro de la tarde? - Do I pick you up at 4 in the afternoon?

Nadie come a la una - Nobody eats at 1.

Also, we can use both por or a in the following cases:

Voy a yoga tres días a la semana /Voy a yoga tres días por semana - I go to yoga three days a week/per week.

Finally, when we say "from...to" we use "de...a".

Trabajo de lunes a viernes - I work from Monday to Friday.

Voy a/iba a ...

The periphrasis with ir, which is, for example near future with ir, like "Voy a bailar" (I'm going to dance) need that a between the two verbs.

Examples:

¿Vas a ir al cumpleaños? - Are you going to go to the birthday?

Van a mudarse de casa - They're going to move house

Voy a descansar mañana - Tomorrow I'm going to rest.

This also happens in its past version (iba a bailar - I was going to dance).

Iba a salir pero no me siento bien - I was going to go out but I don't feel well.

¿Ibas a llamar? - Were you going to call?

Íbamos a casarnos pero apareció el coronavirus - We were going to get married but coronavirus showed up.

Vamos a

When we use vamos a it can also be translated as "let's do something", for example:

¡Vamos a cantar! - Let's sing!

or "shall we...?" to suggest an activity:

¿Vamos a la playa hoy? - Shall we go to the beach?

Voy a / voy para ...

Personal a

We put an a between the verb and a person right after in the sentence.

This happens both when a person is a direct object (when the a is not translated) and indirect (in which case we see the a translated to "to")

I see my mom - Veo a mi madre

It's a direct object, no translation of the a.

I tell stories to the kids - Cuento historias a los niños

The a is translated to "to".

Verbs with preposition

Some verbs need a preposition, like a right after.

check out this table and post where you have a lot of verbs of movement, some that need the a before a person (both those cases are explained here) plus some other ones that need the "a" just because.

A few common ones are the following, when they have another action after: Verb + a + infinitive:

empezar a (to start to), aprender a (to learn to), tender a (to tend to..), volver a (to do again/go back to doing), llegar a (to get to do).

Also, jugar a (to play) + sport

  • Examples:

¿Dónde aprendiste a tocar la guitarra? - Where did you learn to play the guitar?

Jugamos al fútbol - We play football.

Empiezan a trabajar a las 3 - They start to work at 3.

Tiendo a pensar demasiado - I tend to think too much.

¿Vuelves a comer carne? - Are you going back to eating meat? / do you eat meat again?

Llegó a ser el alcalde de su pueblo - He go to be/became the mayor of his town.

When we don't use a

A common mistake is using a instead of en.

When we talk about "being in a space/place" we use en. Except for saying the time, there's no "at" in Spanish, just "in" or "on".

I work at the museum - we say "I work in the museum"

Trabajo en el museo

I've never been to Cuba - we say "I've never been in Cuba"

Nunca he estado en Cuba

Someone is at the door - we say "someone is in the door"

Alguien está en la puerta

Practice

Notice where we use the a in these situations and try to see why. Sometimes there's more than one a!!

  • Voy a llegar un poco tarde, de 6 a 7 - I'm going to be a bit late, from 6 to 7.
  • El teatro termina a las once - The theater finishes at 11.
  • Empezamos a salir hace tres años - We started to go out/date three years ago.
  • Doy un regalo a mi mejor amiga cada año - I give a present to my best friend every year.
  • Quedamos todos a las diez - We all meet at ten.
  • Conducen a Francia cada año - They drive to France every year.
  • Ayudan a sus vecinos a menudo - They help their neighbours often.
  • Iban a venir pero no encontraron niñera - They were going to come but they didn't find a nanny.
  • ¿Ves a tu familia mucho? - Do you see your family a lot?
  • Sí, veo a mi hermana y a mis padres dos veces a la semana - Yes, I see my sister and parents twice a week.
  • ¿Vienes a casa a cenar? - Do you come home for dinner? /are you coming home for dinner?
  • Voy a la ciudad a ver a mi madre - I go to the city to see my mom.

and finally, why not here?

Nunca hemos estado en Australia - We've never been to Australia.

¡Perfecto! Hope that was helpful,

¡Hasta la próxima!¡Chao! :)