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Español 1: Capítulo 3 – Gramática 1

Gustar with infinitives, pronouns after prepositions, the present tense of querer

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Gustar with infinitives

An infinitive is a type of verb.◦It tells the meaning of the verb without naming

any subject or tense.◦It means “To ____”

There are three kinds of infinitives in Spanish◦Those ending in –AR◦Those ending in –ER◦Those ending in –IR

Cantar - to sing

Comer – to eat

Escribir – to write

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Gustar with infinitivesJust like nouns, infinitives can be used

after a verb like gustar to say what you and others like to do.

Always use gusta (NOT gustan) with infinitives.

Me gusta la música. Me gusta cantar.

I like music.I like to sing.Me gustan los deportes. Me gusta jugar al

tenis.I like sports. I

like to play tennis.

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Pronouns after prepositions

Pronouns take the place of a noun.Pronouns can stand for the same noun

yet still have different forms depending on how they’re being used in the sentence.

Yo soy Javier. Tengo quince años y me gusta dibujar.

Both pronouns stand for Javier

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You already know subject pronouns and pronouns used with gustar.

Pronouns have a different form when they come after a preposition such as a (to), de (of, from, about), con (with), and en (in, on, at)

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Subject Pronoun

Pronoun used with gustar

Pronouns used after

prepositions

English equivalent

Yo Me Mí I, me

Tú Te Ti You

Usted Usted You

Él Le Él He, him

Ella Ella Her, she

Nosotros (as) Nos Nosotros (as) We, us

Vosotros (as) Os Vosotros (as) You guys

Ustedes Les Ustedes You guys

Ellos / ellas Les Ellos / ellas They, them

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The pronouns mí and ti combine with the preposition con to make the special froms conmigo and contigo (“with me” and “with you”)

With gustar, the phrase formed by a and a pronoun can be added to a sentence to emphasize or clarify who likes something.

¿A ti te gusta dibujar? A mí no me gusta. A ella le gusta.Do you like to draw? I don’t. She does.

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Querer with infinitives

Querer is an infinitive. It means “to want”.To say who wants something, we use a

certain form of querer.Yo Nosotros

Tú Vosotros

Él / ella / usted Ellos / ellas / ustedes

Quiero Queremos

Quieres Queréis

Quiere Quieren

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Querer with infinitives

Just as with gustar, you can use a noun or an infinitive after a form of querer to say what you or others want or want to do.

Quiero helado. Ella quiere comer.

I want ice cream.She wants to eat.¿Qué quieren hacer? Queremos dibujar.What do you guys want to do? We want to draw.