Hi,
I am confused about when to include an 'a' between two consecutive verbs. My search seems to indicate the it depends on the former verb. If so, is it something that has to be memorised with the verb or is there a rule of thumb?
Thanks and regards,
Colin
Hola Colin
I'm afraid there's a lot of memorising involved here. The "a" linked to certain verbs are to do with lots of verbs being "prepositional verbs" needing a specific preposition to complete their meaning, but there is no rule of thumb to follow I'm afraid. I imagine you are referring to examples like: "ella se acostumbró a llevar lentillas" (she got used to wearing eye lenses) - why do we have "a" here? or "ella intentó correr más rápido" (she tried to run faster) - why is there no preposition here after intentar?
This doesn't only happens with the preposition a, it happens with all prepositions, e.g: "ella presumía de tener mucho dinero" (she boasted about having a lot of money) or "ella soñaba con vivir en el Caribe" (she dreamed of living in the Caribbean).
We have a list of common verbs (a limited list) that need a preposition. They aren't always followed by another verb, it could also be a noun for example. You may find the list useful.
Un saludo cordial
Inma
Colin, one way to learn this is to learn any mandatory preposition when you first memorize the verb. For example, instead of learning the verb “to trust” as “confiar”, learn it as “confiar en”.
Also some verbs use different prepositions when they have different meanings. For example, “acabar+noun” means to finish something, “acaber de+verb” means to finish doing something, and “acabar con+a person” means to finish them off. When we learn verbs in context like this our level of Spanish improves much more quickly.
Thank you very much for your answer Inma. Now I understand.
Thank you also Marcos for that very good tip.
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