אני לא רוצה לבזבז כסף על מונית אם אפשר ללכת ברגל.

I don't want to spend money on a taxi if it's possible to walk.

Breakdown of אני לא רוצה לבזבז כסף על מונית אם אפשר ללכת ברגל.

• אני: I
• לרצות: to want
• לא: not
• ללכת: to go

Questions & Answers about אני לא רוצה לבזבז כסף על מונית אם אפשר ללכת ברגל.

Why is אני included? Could Hebrew just say לא רוצה לבזבז כסף...?

Sometimes yes, but אני is very natural here.

The main reason is that רוצה in the present tense does not clearly show the person by itself. Depending on context, רוצה can mean I want, you want (masculine singular), or he wants. So adding אני makes it clearly I.

In casual speech, people do sometimes drop אני if the context is obvious.

If a woman says this sentence, does רוצה change?

In normal everyday writing without vowel marks, it stays spelled the same: רוצה.

But the pronunciation changes:

• male speaker: rotze
• female speaker: rotza

So a woman could write exactly the same sentence, but pronounce it differently.

Why is לא placed before רוצה?

Because the sentence is negating the main idea want:

• אני לא רוצה לבזבז... = I don’t want to waste...

If you moved the negation, you would change the meaning:

• אני רוצה לא לבזבז... = I want not to waste... / I want to avoid wasting...

That is possible, but it is a different structure and emphasis. The original sentence is the most straightforward way to say it.