"Él visita al doctor."

Yep.

oh! That explains it! Thanks for thinking of that possibility. I thought it was just an unusual "the"! whoops. duh

but then what is the regular 'a' doing in the sentence at all. I don't understand why it's there.

If the direct object is a person, then it's always al.

he visits to the doctor = he goes to the doctor "a" is a preposition, not used with this verb in english but in spanish

I did the same. I think that common English usage has not yet been programmed. I imagine Duo thinks we are misinterpreting the personal "a," which is used because a person is the object of the verb, as a preposition, "to" the doctor, which is not the intention in Spanish, although it comes out that way in one common English way of referring to a doctor's visit. A conundrum for Duo, I guess.

The way I notice it when I give an answer and Duo gives similar corrections, i.e., when we give an answer that Duo regards as 'unacceptable', it gives a correction that is closest to the one we gave. I think that's why Duo added the "to see" in its correction while retaining your original answer of "go", to keep the 'closest' Spanish meaning. Anyway, your answer should probably be reported and asked to be included in the database.

It should be counted as correct - he visits, he is visiting, he does visit,

Or "I'm going to the doctor, " "he went to the doctor," etc. Several common ways to say it.

In the USA I live in, visiting the doctor or making a trip to the doctor is commonly said.

It's more common to say "he's visiting/seeing the doctor"

Margo - there are some explanation above on this page :). The "a" here is not a "to", but something that is commonly called "the personal 'a'" which has no corresponding English equivalent but is grammatically required in Spanish before any specific person/group of people or animal when they are a direct object.

The "al" (a + el) is necessary because you are referring to the person who is a doctor as the direct object, not his office, so you need the personal "a". If you said "Él visita la oficina del doctor." the personal "a" is not necessary, as the direct object is not a person, but the office. I wonder if there is a way to say in Spanish what we say in English: "He visits the doctor's." where the office is implied by the possessive, because possessive, to my knowledge, in Spanish can't be demonstrated by just adding an 's?

Someone answer, I wonder too! Like we could say : El visita el doctor. He visits the doctor. or in French Il visite le docteur. Why would it be different in Spanish?

I think your answer should have been accepted. Hope you reported it. (Don't understand why you were being downvoted).

Hi stayfitla,

There is not a con in the sentence. If there was then I think your answer would have been accepted. Con means with.

Thank you, gentlemen, for your clear and edifying answers. Mr. Lajoeiro, the gerund slipped my mind indeed, I will give it a serious amount of time to analyse it properly. This had been a lesson for me of think three times before speaking once :) Thank you again.

“He is visiting the doctor.” is a correct translation of ‘Él visita al doctor.’, because “to visit” is an action verb, and in English, the progressive aspect is always used for present-tense actions except when describing habitual actions or for the narrative present. In Spanish, in contrast, the progressive aspect is only used to emphasize the ongoing nature of an action.

I think it is because Spanish has another construction for that ( I don't know what the tense is called) but it involves using the appropriate present conjunction of "estar" in conjunction with the past participle. So, the construction for "He is visiting the doctor." would be "él está visitando al doctor."

And, I guess one of the idiosyncracies of Spanish is that, unlike English, where we just say "he is visiting the doctor" the Spanish actually say "he is visiting to the doctor." I'm sure our way of saying it without the "to" in there sounds equally strange to them.

he is visiting = él está visitando (gerund tense)

A + El = Al

The personal a is required in this sentence

It's ‘al doctor’ because ‘doctor’ here is a definite animate direct object.

In Spanish the direct object has an "a" before it if this object is a human being while English does not use to. Do not translate the Spanish "a"

él visita el burro/ al doctor he visits the donkey/ the doctor,

you do not use "to" with the donkey so why should you do it with the man

Because the Spanish "a" (in this case, the personal "a" -- not a "to") is not translated in English.

Because it is the/el not a/un in Duo's sentence. A + EL is contracted to AL

'Al' is a contraction for 'a' + 'el' .

The drop section gives what something can signify. In this case it should include that a can mean nothing. NAMELY: Al is a contraction of a+el. The preposition a is used because the doctor is a direct object which in Spanish must be preceeded by a if it is a person. It is best to leave this a, the so called personal a, untranslated because it is an unknown phenomen in English

'Doc' is not a word.

I often see the term 'doctor visits', but I don't see the term 'doctor sightings'. In my experience, it is common to use the term visit.

You could look it up in a Spanish dictionary, but that would take longer.

The Spanish word for 'with' (con) is not in the sentence.

‘Él visita la familia de ella.’ is actually incorrect, because ‘la familia’ is a specific animate direct object. It should be ‘Él visita a la familia de ella.’.

En inglés nunca se dice *“[somebody] visits to [somebody]”; pero se puede decir “[somebody] makes a visit to [somebody]”.