/a/
Translation
to, at
Word origin
From Latin ad ('to, towards'). The same preposition survives as the English prefix in words like advance and adjacent.
- Origin
- Latin
- Root
- ad
- English cognates
- adjacent, advance
Examples
.
I am going to the shop this afternoon.
llegues.
Call your mother when you arrive.
.
He starts work at nine o'clock.
regalé .
I gave a book to my sister.
.
We are going to eat at an Italian restaurant.
Where this fits
Used in
Stories
(54)El amigo de mi padre
1 min read · Core 1000
¿Vienes o no?
1 min read · Core 1000
Lo mismo de siempre
2 min read · Core 1000
Pedro conoce a alguien
2 min read · Core 5000
Un día con María
2 min read · Core 1000
A Paula le duele todo
3 min read · Core 5000
Alguien que lo haya visto
3 min read · Core 5000
Cinco mil palabras después
3 min read · Core 5000
Cocinar juntos
3 min read · Core 1000
Cuando llegué, ya había pasado
3 min read · Core 5000
Cuanto más espero, peor
3 min read · Core 5000
¿El coche o el carro?
3 min read · Core 5000
La conductora de la ambulancia
3 min read · Core 5000
El correo a la jefa
3 min read · Core 5000
El mejor café de la calle
3 min read · Core 5000
El perro del barrio
3 min read · Core 5000
El primer día de trabajo
3 min read · Core 1000
El vecino nuevo
3 min read · Core 1000
En el médico
3 min read · Core 1000
Es importante que descanses
3 min read · Core 5000
Espero que vengáis
3 min read · Core 5000
La aventura de Sofía
3 min read · Core 5000
La fábrica de madera
3 min read · Core 5000
La fiesta sorpresa
3 min read · Core 1000
La habitación libre
3 min read · Core 5000
La llamada
3 min read · Core 1000
La nota de Rafa
3 min read · Core 5000
La promesa de Lucía
3 min read · Core 5000
Laura busca piso
3 min read · Core 5000
Lleva toda la mañana
3 min read · Core 5000
Lo que de verdad importa
3 min read · Core 5000
Lo que dijo el médico
3 min read · Core 5000
María lleva una hora esperando
3 min read · Core 5000
Más vale tarde que nunca
3 min read · Core 5000
Media docena de huevos
3 min read · Core 5000
Menudo desastre
3 min read · Core 5000
No creo que sea grave
3 min read · Core 5000
No estoy embarazada
3 min read · Core 5000
No fue él, sino ella
3 min read · Core 5000
Pasen y siéntense
3 min read · Core 5000
Por lo tanto, decidimos
3 min read · Core 5000
Por todas partes
3 min read · Core 5000
Preparando la visita
3 min read · Core 5000
Se me cayó todo
3 min read · Core 5000
Se vende la camioneta
3 min read · Core 5000
Tú y tu hermano
3 min read · Core 5000
Una mañana en el mercado
3 min read · Core 1000
Una organización imposible
3 min read · Core 5000
Una tarde de lluvia
3 min read · Core 1000
¡Vaya sorpresa!
3 min read · Core 5000
El café del barrio
4 min read · Core 1000
El primer día de Laura
4 min read · Core 1000
Los puestos del sábado
4 min read · Core 1000
Palabras de cocina
5 min read · Core 1000
Grammar articles
(118)Spanish Accent Rules: agudas, llanas, esdrújulas (café, árbol, rápido)
Spanish Adjective Agreement: Endings, Position, and the Shortened Pre-Nominal Set
Spanish Adjective Suffixes: -oso, -able, -ante, -al (famoso, aceptable, cultural)
Spanish Advanced Grammar (C1-C2): The Constructions That Sound Native
Spanish Adverbs of Place, Time and Degree (aquí, todavía, muy vs mucho)
Spanish Adverbs in -mente: How to Build Them and When to Avoid Them
Spanish Articles: Definite vs Indefinite, Gender, Number, and When English Doesn't Use One
Spanish Causative Verbs: hacer, dejar, mandar + Infinitive (me hizo esperar, le hice arreglar el coche)
Spanish Grammar Cheatsheet: The Essentials, One Page
Spanish Cleft Sentences and Emphasis: fue Pedro quien, lo que quiero es
Spanish Cognate Patterns: -ción, -dad, -oso, -mente and the Endings That Hand You Thousands of Words
Spanish Text Cohesion and Style: signposting, avoiding repetition, en resumen
Spanish Collocations: tomar una decisión, hacer una pregunta, cometer un error
Spanish Comparatives: más que, menos que, tan como and the Four Irregulars
Spanish Correlative Comparison: cuanto más... más, cada vez más, el doble
Spanish Compound Tenses: the Future Perfect and Past Anterior (habré hablado, hube hablado)
Spanish Conditional: the 'Would' Tense, me gustaría and Polite Requests
Conjugating Spanish -ar Verbs in the Present Tense
Conjugating Spanish -er Verbs in the Present Tense
Conjugating Spanish -ir Verbs in the Present Tense
Conjugating Spanish Reflexive Verbs in the Present Tense
Spanish Verb Conjugation: The Complete Rules with Examples
How to Say Therefore, So and Because in Spanish: por lo tanto, así que, porque
How to Say However, Even Though and Despite in Spanish: sin embargo, aunque, a pesar de
Este or Esta? Matching Spanish Demonstratives to Gender and Number
Demonstrative Pronouns in Spanish: Este, Ese, Aquel and the Three-Way This and That
Spanish Demonstrative Adjectives: este, ese, aquel and the Three-Way Distance Split
The Spanish Diacritic Accent: tú vs tu, sí vs si, qué vs que
Spanish Diminutives and Augmentatives: -ito, -illo, -ón, -azo (casita, un poquito, un hombrón)
Spanish Exclamations: ¡Qué bonito!, ¡Cuánta gente!, ¡Vaya día! (and the accents)
Spanish False Friends (Part 1): embarazada, actual, realizar, sensible
Spanish False Friends (Part 2): molestar, recordar, soportar, pretender
Spanish Formal Commands: usted and ustedes
The Future and Conditional of Probability in Spanish (¿Qué hora será?, Serían las tres)
Spanish Future Tense: ir a + Infinitive and the Inflectional Future
The Spanish Gerund (-ndo): Adverbial Uses and the Mistakes to Avoid (salió corriendo)
Spanish Greetings and Survival Phrases: Say Something Today
Gustar and Verbs Like It: Why Spanish Says the Coffee Pleases You
Hace, Desde and Desde Hace: Saying How Long and How Long Ago in Spanish
Spanish Fixed Similes: dormir como un tronco, más bueno que el pan, terco como una mula
Spanish Time and Frequency Phrases: de vez en cuando, a menudo, de repente, poco a poco
Spanish Imperative: Affirmative Tú Commands and the Eight Irregulars
The Spanish Imperfect Subjunctive: Formation, Examples and Practice
Spanish Imperfect: hablaba, comía, vivía and Only Three Irregulars
Spanish Impersonal Verbs: hay, hace, se habla and the No-Subject Constructions
Spanish Indefinites: alguno, ninguno, alguien, nadie, algo, nada, cualquiera
The Spanish Infinitive as a Noun and After Prepositions (antes de salir, al llegar)
Spanish Slang and Chat: decoding tío, guay, o sea, xq (the informal register)
Spanish Intensifiers and Downtoners: muy, -ísimo, super, un poco, más bien
Spanish Intermediate Grammar (B1-B2): The Things That Stop You at the Plateau
Spanish Question Words: Qué, Quién, Cómo, Dónde and the Accent That Asks
Spanish Irregular Verbs: The Groups Worth Learning and the Ones to Memorise
The Spanish Neuter lo (lo bueno, lo que, lo de)
Advanced Spanish Negation: ni, sino vs pero, tampoco, ni siquiera
Spanish Negation: no, nunca, nadie and Why Double Negatives Are Correct
Spanish Negative Commands: Why no hables Borrows the Subjunctive
Spanish Nosotros Commands: the 'Let's...' Form
Spanish Noun Gender: The -o/-a Rule, the Ending Patterns, and the Exceptions Worth Memorising
Spanish Noun Plurals: Add -s, Add -es, Swap -z for -ces, and the Nouns That Never Change
Spanish Noun Suffixes: -ción, -dad, -miento, -eza (and the gender each gives)
Spanish Ordinals, Fractions, Dates and Time (el primer día, media hora, son las tres y cuarto)
Spanish Direct and Indirect Object Pronouns: lo, la, le, se
Spanish Past Participles as Adjectives and Absolute Clauses (una puerta cerrada, terminada la reunión)
The Passive se and the Impersonal se in Spanish (se venden casas, se habla español)
The Passive with ser in Spanish (fue escrito por, fueron construidas)
Spanish Perception Verbs + Infinitive or Gerund: la vi salir, lo oí cantando
The Spanish Present Perfect Subjunctive (haya hablado), with Practice
The Personal A in Spanish: Why 'Veo a María' but 'Veo la casa'
The Spanish Pluperfect Subjunctive and Conditional Perfect (hubiera hablado, habría hablado)
The Spanish Pluperfect (había hablado)
Spanish Politeness: Softening Requests (¿Podría...?, ¿Te importaría...?, quisiera)
Por vs Para in Spanish: The Rules, a Chart, and a Practice Quiz
Spanish Possessive Pronouns: el mío, el tuyo, el suyo and the Long Possessives
Spanish Possessive Adjectives: mi, tu, su and Why Agreement Trips Beginners
Spanish Prefixes: des-, re-, in-, pre- (deshacer, imposible, rehacer)
Spanish Prepositional Pronouns (para mí, conmigo, entre tú y yo)
Spanish Compound Prepositions and Tricky Choices: delante de, a pesar de, soñar con
Spanish Prepositions: de, a, en, con, por, para and the Two Contractions
Spanish Present Perfect: he hablado, ha vivido, hemos visto
The Spanish Present Progressive: estar + gerundio, and Why It Is Not the English -ing
The Spanish Present Subjunctive: Forms, the Opposite-Vowel Rule, and Practice
Preterite vs Imperfect: How to Choose Between the Two Spanish Past Tenses
Spanish Preterite: hablé, comí, viví and the Big Irregular Group
Spanish Pronoun Order: Indirect Before Direct, and the le-to-se Rule
Spanish Punctuation and Capitalisation: the opening ¿ and ¡, lowercase lunes and español
Spanish Quantifiers: mucho, poco, demasiado, todo, cada (mucha gente vs trabaja mucho)
Spanish Question Words: qué, quién, cuándo, dónde, cómo, cuál, cuánto, por qué
Spanish Reciprocal Verbs (se quieren, nos ayudamos - each other)
Spanish Reflexive Verbs: levantarse, llamarse, lavarse and the Pronoun Position
Spanish Proverbs (Refranes): Más vale tarde que nunca, A quien madruga Dios le ayuda
Spanish Regional Grammar: voseo (vos tenés), ustedes, and preterite vs perfect
Spanish Vocabulary: Spain vs Latin America (coche vs carro, móvil vs celular, zumo vs jugo)
Spanish Register: tu vs usted, vosotros vs ustedes (and how formal to be)
Advanced Spanish Relative Pronouns: el que, el cual, lo cual and cuyo
Spanish Relative Pronouns: que, quien, lo que, donde and cuando
Reported Questions and Commands in Spanish (me preguntó si, me dijo que viniera)
Reported Speech in Spanish: tense backshift (dice que, dijo que)
Saber vs Conocer: The Two Spanish Verbs for 'To Know'
The Spanish Accidental se (se me cayó, se me olvidó)
Ser vs Estar: When to Use Each, with a Practice Quiz and Worksheets
Spanish Set Phrases with tener, dar, hacer, echar (tener ganas, echar de menos, hacer falta)
Si Clauses in Spanish: Real and Unreal Conditions (si llueve, si tuviera, si hubiera)
Spanish Spelling Traps: b vs v, g vs j, silent h (tubo vs tuvo, gente vs jefe)
Spanish Stem-Changing Verbs: e>ie, o>ue, e>i and the Boot Pattern
Spanish Subject Pronouns: yo, tú, él and Why You Usually Leave Them Out
The Spanish Subjunctive in Adverbial Clauses: Rules and Practice
Subjunctive vs Indicative in Spanish: Doubt, Denial and the Negation Flip
Spanish Subjunctive After Emotion
Spanish Subjunctive After Impersonal Expressions
The Spanish Subjunctive in Relative (Adjective) Clauses, with Practice
Spanish Subjunctive Set Phrases: pase lo que pase, como si, ojalá, que tengas...
Spanish Subjunctive After Wishes
Spanish Superlatives: El Mejor, El Más, and the -ísimo Ending
How Spanish Builds Verbs: -izar, -ecer, -ificar, -ear (realizar, oscurecer, simplificar)
Spanish Verbal Periphrases: acabar de, llevar, volver a, seguir + verb
Verbs of Becoming in Spanish: ponerse, hacerse, volverse, convertirse en, llegar a ser
Verbs with Prepositions in Spanish (Régimen Preposicional): the Fixed Verb + Preposition Pairs
Spanish Word Order: SVO, Pro-Drop and the Five Rules That Cover 90% of Sentences
Add to review queue
Track this word in your spaced-repetition queue and be tested on it at the right interval.
Go to my review queueSpanish · Free printables
a: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Spanish word "a" (to, at): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
Free for members
The printable worksheets, infographics and PDFs are free with an account. Start a free week and download as many as you like.
Start your free weekThis word is part of lesson 1.