When to use al

Hola Kimberley

Great question! In the sentence "Ana quiere al hombre al que yo vi", the first "al" is a contraction of "a" (to) + "el" (the), and it’s used because the verb "querer" in this case means "to love" or "to care for", and it requires the use of a direct object when referring to people.

In Spanish, when referring to a specific person or people, we need to use the "personal a". This doesn't translate directly into English, but it’s a grammatical rule. The "personal a" is used before the direct object when the object is a person. So, "al" here is simply the combination of "a" + "el" before the noun "hombre" (man).

So, the sentence "Ana quiere al hombre" literally translates to "Ana loves the man", but grammatically in Spanish, the "a" is necessary before "el hombre" because he is the direct object and a person.

I hope this clears things up!

Saludos

Silvia