Why "a ti" and not just "ti"?

Question

I am very much a beginner when it comes to learning Spanish. I have turned my language settings for Facebook from English to Spanish so that I see the language regularly and I have noticed that the statement "You and 5 others liked this" is translated as > A ti y 5 otras personas más le gusta esto.So far I have been taught that "a" usually means "to" and I know that "ti" means "you" so why is the "a" in this sentence?

Answer 1

¡Pregunta fenomenal! What a great question!!

The 'a' has to do with the fact that the verb "gustar" - which we translate as "to like" - actually means "to be pleasing to"... What you are really saying is that a particular Facebook post is pleasing to you and five other - the 'a ti' is simply the 'to you' that is required as part of using the verb in this way.

If you are the only one that has like the post, you may see that Facebook simply posts "Te gusta," since we communicate the idea with just the conjugated verb and the indirect object pronoun (me, te, le, nos, les) in front. Those pronouns inherently include the idea of the "to," and since "te" can only be used for you, we often skip the "a ti" part of things. This time, though, there are other folks involved, so the "a ti" adds clarification or emphasis that you are one of those folks!

¡A mí me gustan tus preguntas! (I could just say that I really like your questions - Me gustan tus preguntas - but I want to add the emphasis!!)