Preposition or not after a verb?

Cada día un poco de práctica (Every day a little practice):

Preposition or not after a verb?

Verbs of movement
Generally, after a verb of movement, we use a preposition.
Examples: (Notice the prepositions ‘a’, ‘de’ and ‘por’)
Yo voy a la escuela [I go to school]
Yo vengo de la escuela [I come from school]
Yo subo al campanario [I go up to the bell tower]
Yo bajo del campanario [I come down from the bell tower]
Yo subí a leer un rato [I went up to read for a while]
Yo bajé a comer [I came down to eat]
Bajé por el sendero [I went down the trail]
If I say “subí a la montaña”, it means “I went up to the mountain”. But, if I say “subí la montaña”, it could mean “I climbed the mountain” or even “I conquered the mountain”.
Other verbs
Using the personal ‘a’
We use the personal ‘a’ (for direct objects) when the verb refers to people, but not when it refers to things.
Examples:
Llevé a mis amigos [I took my friends]
Llevé mis libros [I took my books]
Ayer visité a mi tío [Yesterday I visited my uncle]
Ayer visité la feria [Yesterday I visited the fair]
It’s up to you the usage of the personal ‘a’ with animals
El doctor examina al perro [The doctor examines the dog ] (This dog is your pet)
El doctor examina el perro [The doctor examines the dog ] (This dog is not your pet)
Sometimes, it could be tricky. Examples:
(Les) cuento a los niños una fábula [I tell the children a fable]. Here, the preposition "a" is not the personal 'a' but the one for indirect objects.
Cuento los niños en el patio [I count the children in the yard]
Preposition ‘para’
If you can replace the English preposition ‘to’ with ‘in order to’, you can use ‘para’ in Spanish.
Examples:
Juan puso el reloj despertador para levantarse temprano [John set up the alarm clock to wake up early]
María se viste para ir al cine [Mary is dressed to go to cinema]
If you cannot replace the English preposition ‘to’ with ‘in order to’, then you don’t need a preposition in Spanish before the second verb.
Examples:
Luisa quiere limpiar el ático [Luisa wants to clean the attic]
Gloria necesita comprar otro pincel [Gloria needs to buy another brush]
Daniel desea probar el nuevo producto [Daniel wishes to taste the new product]


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