Unclear why to use "A vuestros hijos" instead of "vuestros hijos"?

Question

I have the following sentence in English > Do your children like to read? Which translates to Spanish: > A vuestros hijos les gusta leer? To me it is unclear, why I have to use "**A** vuestros" in this case. Which grammatical rule is active here and are there other cases this rule applies as well?

Answer 1

In English, we use the verb “to like” a bit differently than its Spanish equivalent “gustar.” I perfer the translation of “gustar” as meaning “to please,” because it helps us understand better how it works in a sentence.

When you translate the sentence, you actually aren’t saying word for word “Do your children like to read?” The exact translation would be something like: “Does reading please your children?” That would be an uncommon way to say it in English, but with the Spanish verb “gustar” it’s actually standard. This means that “to read” (leer) is actually the subject of the sentence and “your children” (vuestros hijos) is the indirect object. That’s why you use “a;” it indicates towards whom or what the action is being performed. (Towards the indirect object)

You would use this in most cases that involve the verb “gustar,” (to please) as well as with the verb “encantar”. (to really please, much as we would say that someone loves something in English) You use this form of “a” with the indirect objects of other verbs as well. For example: “Le compré chocolates a mi novia.” (I bought chocolates for my girlfriend) In this example, “mi novia” (my girlfriend) is the indirect object and we use “a” to show it’s relationship to the verb. (compré/I bought)

Answer 2

In the case of the GUSTAR construction, an indirect object pronoun is required: me, te, le(s), os. Many learners are taught that "me gusta" means "to like" because that is the most common English equivalent. "Me gusta" more directly translates to "It is pleasing to me" in which case the indirect object pronoun is obvious because of the use of the preposition "to". Just as we use "to" in English to express indirectness (e.g. He gave the book to me), it is also used in Spanish when emphasizing the person. For example, A mí, me gusta el chocolate.

In your example, A vuestros hijos les gusta leer, the "a" indicates that vuestros hijos is the recipient of the action, or the indirect object. We cannot leave out the "a" because that would indicate that vuestros hijos was the subject of the sentence, which is not the case. In your example, leer is the subject because "reading" is doing the pleasing, is pleasing to your children.

To explain further with the chocolate example:

I could say El chocolate me gusta. Since there is no "a" (Al chocolate) I am indicating that "el chocolate" is the subject of the sentence and "me" is the indirect object pronoun (Chocolate is pleasing to me.)

But saying A mí me gusta el chocolate, is further emphasizing that I am the one that likes chocolate, not you, or them. Chocolate is pleasing to me.

There are many other verbs that behave in this same way, that requires the same use of "a". Some of these are: encantar, importar, doler, molestar