What is the difference? Spanish help.?

Question

Why do you say: el hombre esta tirando la pelota

but when you change ball to boy it is:

El hombre esta tirando al nino.

Please explain,

Thanks

Answer 1

some body who is well versed in spanish will help you

Answer 2

because la in spanish is for something and al it means its somebody

Answer 3

That´s a very simple rule in Spanish:

When the Direct Object is an inanimated object (a ball, a paper, the garbage, a hit, etc) you don´t need any preposition.

But if the Direct Object is an animated object, an animal, or a person you have to use preposition A before it.

So:

El hombre está mirando la casa (la casa = Direct Object)

but

El hombre está mirando A su perro (su perro = Direct Object)

El hombre está mirando A la niña (la niña = Direct Object)

Answer 4

El hombre esta tirando la pelota

"The man is throwing the ball"

El hombre esta tirando al nino

"The man is throwing the kid"

Well in english when u refer to an object or person, "THE" doesn't change it will always stay the same as singular.But in spanish "LA" is referred to object EX: LA PUERTA, LA TELEVISION, LA SILLA

                                the door           the TV               th chair

used  for a person, instead of saying = a el nino, u say al nino because 'a' and 'e' are sylables, that can't be next to each othe in seperate words so u drop the 'e' and put 'al'. cause if not in english will sound like: the man throws at the kid Ex: TIRO AL NINO, LLAMO AL POLICIA                                                 i throw the kid,   i call the police           u use this "AL" when u refer to a plural that's masculine, and "LA" when the plural is femenine. I hope u understood.