La exigencia afecta a la productividad.

Not usually. In modern Spanish, exigencia often means demand, strictness, high expectations, or pressure. English exigency usually means an urgent need or emergency, so it is often a false friend.

In this sentence, la exigencia is more like demanding conditions, pressure, or strictness.

Spanish uses articles more often than English. With abstract nouns, Spanish often says la + noun where English might just use the noun by itself.

So la exigencia can mean something like demand/strictness as a general or context-known concept.

Because the subject is la exigencia, which is singular.

Spanish verbs agree with the subject in number:

• La exigencia afecta
• Las exigencias afectan

Gender does not change the verb here; only singular/plural matters.

Because with the meaning to affect, Spanish normally uses the pattern afectar a + noun.

So you learn it as:

• afectar a algo
• afectar a alguien

That a is part of how this verb is commonly used in this meaning. It is not translated into English.

Yes. In practical learner terms, la productividad is the thing receiving the effect of the verb: it is what is being affected.

So in La exigencia afecta a la productividad, la productividad is the thing affected. Do not think of it as an English-style indirect object. It is best just to remember the pattern afectar a algo/alguien.

Again, Spanish often keeps the definite article with abstract nouns.

English can say productivity with no article, but Spanish commonly says la productividad. So afecta a la productividad is the natural form.

For a learner of standard Spanish, especially Spain Spanish, it is safest to use afectar a in this meaning.

You may occasionally see the a omitted in some varieties or contexts, but afecta a la productividad is the most reliable and natural choice to learn.

There are a few clues:

• La exigencia comes before the verb.
• The verb afecta agrees with la exigencia in singular.
• a la productividad is introduced by the preposition used with afectar.

So the sentence means Demand/strictness affects productivity, not the other way around.

Exigencia is feminine, so it takes la. Productividad is also feminine.

A useful pattern is that nouns ending in -dad are almost always feminine, for example:

• la ciudad
• la realidad
• la productividad

So la exigencia and la productividad are both normal feminine nouns.

A simple Spain-Spanish approximation is:

la ek-see-HEN-thya a-FEK-ta a la pro-duk-ti-vi-DAD

A few useful points:

• g before e in exigencia sounds like a strong Spanish j.
• c before i in -cia is the th sound of thin in most of Spain.
• The stress falls on -GEN- in exigencia, -FEC- in afecta, and -DAD in productividad.