1. I usually have to translate some sentences from Persian to Spanish, and I always get sentences like these wrong:
Ella se lava la cara.
Ella le lava la cara a su hijo.
Nuestra prima no se acuerda de esa canción. Nosotros tampoco.
Do you have any tips for me so that I can learn them better?
2. Are these correct?
Le lavo las manos a mi hijo.
Le lavas las manos a tu hijo.
Le lava las manos a su hijo.
Les lavamos las manos a nuestros hijos.
Les laváis las manos a sus hijos.
Les lavan las manos "a" sus hijos.
3. What about this "a"? Does it have a special grammatical name? When should I use it? I don't know how to look it up.
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@Coral Could you please check this post, too? (How can I ask this in spanish?) ¡Gracias!
In Spanish, sentences like these are difficult because they use reflexive pronouns, indirect object pronouns, and the personal “a”.
A. The subject does the action to themselves (reflexive):
Ella se lava la cara. (She washes her own face.)
Here, se is a reflexive pronoun.
B. The subject does the action to someone else (indirect object):
Ella le lava la cara a su hijo.
( She washes her son’s face.)
Here, le = to him / to her (indirect object pronoun)
a su hijo = who receives the action
Spanish usually uses BOTH:
the pronoun (le / les)
and the noun phrase (a su hijo / a sus hijos)
This is called redundant indirect object (it’s normal in Spanish).
Question: What is this “a”?
In Spanish, this "a" has two functions here:
a) Personal “a”
It is used before people (and sometimes animals).
Veo a María.
Ayudo a mi hijo.
This is called “personal a”.
b) Marker of the indirect object.
In sentences like:
Le lavo las manos a mi hijo.
The phrase a mi hijo shows who receives the action.
So you can think of it as:
“to my son”
Even if English doesn’t always say “to”.
Why is this hard?
Because Spanish says:
Le lavo las manos a mi hijo.
(literally: I wash the hands to my son)
But English says:
I wash my son’s hands.
So the structure is very different.
A simple rule that helps:
✅ If the action is done to a person, use:
le / les + verb + body part + a + person
Examples:
Le corto el pelo a mi hermano.
Les preparo la comida a mis padres.
Le arreglo el ordenador a mi amiga.
Thanks so much,@Coral for taking the time to help me.
You're welcome, Zobayda.