Modern Spanish Grammar: A Practical Guide

Quisiera una habitación doble. I’d like a double room. Quisiéramos verla. We’d like to see it. (c) The imperfect, i.e. quería, ‘ ...

conditional or, less frequently, in the imperfect, which softens the expression of want. Apetecer is uncommon in Latin America. ...

57.1.4 Desear Desear, ‘to wish’, is rarely found in spoken informal language. Its use seems to be restricted to formal contexts, ...

conditional, as a way of softening the expression of preference. Like querer, it is normally followed by a noun or noun phrase, ...

57.4 Expressing desires and preferences involving others 57.4.1 Querer/preferir que+ subjunctive Desires and preferences involvi ...

Es mejor que lo haga usted mismo/a. I’d rather you did it yourself/You’d better do it yourself. Sería mejor que vinieras tú conm ...

58 Expressing likes and dislikes This chapter looks at the ways in which Spanish expresses the concept of likes and dislikes. It ...

Creo que le gustará éste. I think he/she will like this one. No les gustó mucho el tuyo. They didn’t like yours much. Les gustar ...

58.1.4 A+ proper name The preposition a is also required before a proper name A Carlos le gustó mucho Granada. Carlos liked Gran ...

¿No te gusta el jazz? Don’t you like jazz? Note also the short forms: ¿A él también (le gustan)? Does he (like them) too? ¿Y a é ...

Me desagrada su actitud. I don’t like his/her attitude. Eso nos desagradó muchísimo. We didn’t like that at all. Le disgustó mi ...

Me gusta que me regalen flores. I like to be given flowers. Le encanta/fascina que le digan eso. He/she loves to be told that. N ...

59 Expressing surprise This chapter considers the concept of surprise and examines the ways in which Spanish speakers normally e ...

¡Parece mentira! It’s unbelievable! It hardly seems possible! ¡Dios mío! or ¡Dios santo! God! Good God! ¡No lo puedo creer! I ju ...

Note that in this context the verbs sorprender, extrañar, and asombrar behave like gustar, ‘to like’, so they must go in the thi ...

60 Expressing satisfaction and dissatisfaction This chapter deals with the concepts of satisfaction and dissatisfaction and exam ...

¡Me encanta lo que has hecho! Me parece muy bien. I love what you’ve done. I think it’s great. No está nada mal. It’s not bad at ...

No es lo que yo quería. It’s not what I wanted.
 61.2 (p. 353);^58 (p. 340) 60.3 Enquiring about satisfaction or dissatisfacti ...

61 Expressing approval and disapproval The concepts of approval and disapproval discussed in this chapter are usually expressed ...

61.2 Expressing disapproval 61.2.1 Set phrases (Eso) no está bien. That’s not right. ¡(Eso) está (muy) mal! That’s (very) bad! D ...