El albacea consulta al contador-partidor.

to the

Breakdown of El albacea consulta al contador-partidor.

• consultar: to consult
• el albacea: the executor
• el contador-partidor: the estate partitioner

Questions & Answers about El albacea consulta al contador-partidor.

What part of speech is consulta here? Is it a noun or a verb?

Here consulta is a verb, not a noun.

• It is the third-person singular present indicative form of consultar.
• So it means he/she consults or consults.

In this sentence, the subject is El albacea, so consulta means the executor consults.

As a noun, consulta also exists and can mean things like consultation or appointment, but that is not what is happening here.

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Why is it al contador-partidor and not just el contador-partidor?

Because Spanish uses the personal a before a specific human direct object.

Here, the person being consulted is el contador-partidor, so Spanish says:

• consulta al contador-partidor

This al is made from:

• a + el = al

So the structure is:

• consultar a alguien = to consult someone

This is very common in Spanish:

• Veo al médico. = I see the doctor.
• Llamo al abogado. = I call the lawyer.

Even though English does not use a special marker here, Spanish usually does when the direct object is a person.

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Why does the sentence begin with El? Can Spanish use the article before job titles like this?