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When I try to translate this sentence
Juan send his daughter to his mother
I got this
Juan envía a su hija a su madre
Considering the following facts:
su hija is a personal direct object (DO)a before itsu madre is an IO, hence a comes after itHowever, don't think my Spanish translation is right. Moreover, the sentence is ambiguous on which is DO or IO. What is the right translation?
In this case, the a before the DO is not mandatory, so you can say:
Juan envía su hija a su madre.
RAE's Diccionario panhispánico de dudas, under its entry 1. a + complemento directo. lists a detailed set of rules to establish when a DO must (uso forzoso), may (doble uso), or can't (no se usa) be preceded by a. In this case it says that the a before su hija can be omitted to remove the ambiguity:
d) Cuando el complemento directo de persona precedido de preposición coincide en la oración con otro complemento que también la lleva (por ejemplo, un complemento indirecto), puede omitirse la que antecede al complemento directo, para evitar confusiones: Presentó (A) SU NOVIO a sus padres. Pero si el complemento directo es un nombre propio, es forzoso el uso de la preposición: Presentó A JUAN a sus padres.
