La and ella

Question

Le hemos explicado a ella el problema.We have explained the problem to her.  "le" is her. I got that. "ella" is she. Have you written : *to her"..Le and  "a ellla" as she? I would have writte Le hemos explicado  a Junita, anything but not "a ella" which I interpret as "to she". Please instruct me.

Silvia Píriz · Accepted Answer

Hola de nuevo John C.
The confusion comes from the fact that ella has two different roles in Spanish.

Ella by itself is the subject pronoun ("she").
After a preposition such as a, para, de, con, the same form ella is used as the prepositional pronoun, meaning "her".

So:
Le hemos explicado el problema a ella. = We have explained the problem to her.
Here, le is the indirect object pronoun ("to her"), while a ella repeats that indirect object for emphasis or clarification. This is very common in Spanish and helps make it clear who le refers to.
You're also correct that you could say:
Le hemos explicado el problema a Juanita.
In that case, a Juanita identifies who le refers to. Likewise, a ella simply means "to her", not "to she". English uses different forms ("she" / "her"), but Spanish uses ella after prepositions.
I hope that clears it up!
Silvia