Learn Spanish (Spain): Busco al jefe. - I am looking for the boss.

Busco al jefe.

I am looking for the boss.

Breakdown of Busco al jefe.

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Questions & Answers about Busco al jefe.

Why is there an 'a' hidden inside 'al' if 'buscar' already means 'to look for'?

This is the 'personal a' in action. When the object of a sentence (the one receiving the action) is a specific person or a beloved pet, Spanish requires you to put the word a right before them. Since the boss is a person, we must add a.

What exactly does al mean here?

al is a mandatory contraction of two words: the personal a plus el (the masculine word for 'the'). Whenever a and el are next to each other, they smash together to form al. You will never write a el as separate words.

Why doesn't the Spanish sentence use a word for 'for', like para or por?

In English we say 'look for', but in Spanish, the verb buscar already contains the meaning of 'for' built-in. Adding an extra word for 'for' would be a mistake, as it would sound like saying 'I am looking for for the boss'.

Why isn't the word yo (I) at the beginning of the sentence?

The verb buscar changes to busco only when the subject is 'I'. Because that -o ending makes it obvious who is doing the looking, Spanish speakers usually drop the yo entirely unless they want to sound extra emphatic.