Answer:
El otro día llamé a María para saber cómo estaba.
Le dije a mi padre que quería comer caramelos y me los compró
El director felicitó a los alumnos por su comportamiento.
Explanation:
In Spanish, when the direct object is a person, it is preceded by the preposition "a" (which does not have any English translation). For example: <em>John calls Paul </em>is translated into <em>John llama </em><em>a Paul</em><em>.</em>
From the English speaker's perspective, the personal "a" appears to be an extra word. From the Spanish speaker's perspective, the personal "a" is necessary to use this word to make the sentence grammatical.
