Recipient and beneficiary
Who gets it, or who is it done for?
Meaning
Someone may receive a thing or a message, or benefit from what another person does. The receiver and the person who benefits can be different people, and an intended receiver need not actually get anything. Languages use word order, endings, or separate words to show these roles, sometimes without distinct markers for the two. How the recipient is marked looks at those forms; this block looks at who receives something or benefits.
How to spot it
Ask who receives or is meant to receive something, and who the action is done for.
In your native language
With verbs such as give, English can name the recipient before the thing given or after it with to. A beneficiary, someone an action is done for, is often introduced with for; verbs such as make also allow the person before the thing made. Not every verb allows both word orders.
I sent Lily a photo.
The recipient comes before the thing sent, without a preposition.
Please give the keys to Ben.
To introduces the recipient after the thing given.
We saved a seat for you.
For names the person who benefits from the action.
In your learning language
Spanish commonly expresses a recipient with a and a short pronoun such as le or les. Someone who benefits from an action can be expressed with para or with a recipient-form pronoun. Para can also identify an intended receiver without saying that anything was actually delivered.
Le envié una foto a mi hermana.
I sent my sister a photo.
Le and a mi hermana refer to the same recipient.
Preparé una sopa para mi abuela.
I made some soup for my grandmother.
Para names the person the soup was made for.
Te guardé un sitio.
I saved you a seat.
Te names the person who benefits from saving the seat.
Learners whose language uses one form for recipients and beneficiaries may treat a and para as interchangeable. Learners whose language avoids repeating a participant may leave out le or les where Spanish normally includes it.