Learn Spanish (Spain): Los niños ayudan al abuelo. - The children help the grandfather.

This is the "personal a" from this lesson! In Spanish, when the direct object of a verb (the person receiving the action) is a specific person, you must put the word a in front of them. Here, the grandfather (abuelo) is a person, so we use the personal a.

What exactly is the word "al"?

The word al is a mandatory contraction. When the personal a is followed immediately by el (the masculine word for "the"), they combine into al. You will never write a el in Spanish; it always shrinks down to al.

Doesn't "al" usually mean "to the"? Do they literally "help to the grandfather"?

In other contexts, al does mean "to the" (like going to the park). But here, the a part is just a grammatical marker because the object is a person. It doesn't translate as "to" in English. We just say "help the grandfather".

Could los niños mean "the boys" instead of "the children"?

Yes! Los niños can mean a group of only boys ("the boys") or a mixed group of boys and girls ("the children"). You rely on the context to know which one it means.

Why does the verb end in "-an" here (ayudan)?