Learn Spanish (Spain): Admiro mucho a mi mentor; él me inspira. - I admire my mentor a lot; he inspires me.

Admiro mucho a mi mentor; él me inspira.

I admire my mentor a lot; he inspires me.

Breakdown of Admiro mucho a mi mentor; él me inspira.

él

he / him (after a preposition)

mucho

a lot

personal a (marks a person object)

Questions & Answers about Admiro mucho a mi mentor; él me inspira.

If I replace a mi mentor with a pronoun to say 'I admire him', should I use lo or le?

Grammatically, mentor is the direct object receiving the admiration, so the standard pronoun is lo (lo admiro). However, in Spain, using le for a single male person as a direct object is so common that it is officially accepted by the Royal Spanish Academy. Since this lesson focuses on that accepted 'leísmo', saying le admiro is perfectly natural and correct here.

Why do we need the word a before mi mentor?

This is the 'personal a'. Even though mi mentor is the direct object of the verb admiro, Spanish requires you to put an a before a direct object whenever it refers to a specific, known person or a beloved pet.

Is the subject pronoun él strictly necessary in the second half of the sentence?

No, it isn't strictly necessary. Because of the context, me inspira is enough to make it clear who is doing the inspiring. However, including él after the semicolon adds a slight emphasis, contrasting your action (admiring) with his action (inspiring).

Could I put mucho before the verb, saying mucho admiro a mi mentor?

No, adverbs of quantity like mucho almost always go immediately after the verb they modify in Spanish. Putting it before the verb sounds very unnatural, much like saying 'I a lot admire' in English.