[details=“English Translation”]The neighbor recommended a good electrician.
[/details]
Why is there no personal a?
I’m no grammarian, but what makes sense to me is: this verb takes both direct and indirect complements, so the ‘a’ is reserved for the indirect, the person you recommend something to.
I was thinking of similar phrases and some sound ok to me either way. ‘Se trajo dos niños’ or ‘se trajo a dos niños’? The sentence above is definitely without, however.
1 Like
I hadn’t thought of this angle before, but it makes a lot of sense. I suppose that “El vecino me recomendó a un buen electricista” would actually mean that he recommended me (direct object) to a good electrician.
Can I take it that the same reasoning applies to presentar? “El vecino me presentó su amigo” (he presented his friend to me) vs. “El vecino me presentó a su amigo” (he presented me to his friend)?
1 Like
Good example. That seems to invalidate my argument, because to my ear, ‘me presentó a su amigo’ sounds like it could be either, but ‘me presentó su amigo’ just sounds off. Even with ‘recomendar’, now that I think of it. So the other explanation that occurs is that maybe we don’t think of professions as people. Hard to say!
1 Like
Too bad! That wasn’t my intention. 
1 Like