Learn Hardcore Spanish (Latin America): Ella decide cancelar la clase hoy y aceptar una nueva fecha. - She decides to cancel the class today and accept a new date.

In Spanish, many verbs of desire, intention, or decision are followed directly by an infinitive, with no preposition in between. Decidir is one of them:

decidir + infinitive
- Ella decide cancelar la clase.
- Decidimos salir temprano.

If you add a (decide a cancelar), it sounds incorrect or very unnatural in standard Spanish.

So the English to in decides to cancel is normally just expressed by the bare infinitive in Spanish, not with a preposition.

Why is cancelar in the infinitive and not conjugated, like cancela?

After decidir (when the same person performs both actions), Spanish uses the infinitive for the second action:

Ella decide cancelar la clase. = She decides to cancel the class.

If you said Ella decide cancela la clase, that would be wrong: decide already carries the tense and subject; cancelar just names the action.

Compare:

Ella cancela la clase.
- One action: she cancels.
Ella decide cancelar la clase.
- Two actions: she decides (main verb, conjugated) + to cancel (infinitive).

Why is aceptar also in the infinitive, and why don’t we repeat decide before it?

The subject (ella) is the same for both actions (cancel and accept), and both actions depend on the same verb decidir. So Spanish links the infinitives with y:

Ella decide cancelar la clase hoy y aceptar una nueva fecha.

You could expand it (unnaturally) as:

Ella decide cancelar la clase hoy y (decide) aceptar una nueva fecha.

Spanish usually doesn’t repeat the main verb there; it keeps decide once and coordinates the infinitives cancelar and aceptar.

Could we say Ella cancela la clase hoy y acepta una nueva fecha instead? What’s the difference?

Yes, that’s grammatically correct, but the meaning is different:

Ella decide cancelar la clase hoy y aceptar una nueva fecha.
- Focus on the decision she makes now.
Ella cancela la clase hoy y acepta una nueva fecha.
- Focus on the actions themselves (she cancels, she accepts), not on the decision process.

So your original sentence highlights the act of deciding, not just the canceling and accepting.

Why is it decide (present) and not decidió (past)?

That depends on when the deciding happens in context:

Ella decide cancelar la clase hoy…
- Present: she is deciding now (or it’s described as a present fact / habit).
Ella decidió cancelar la clase hoy…
- Preterite: she decided at some point in the past.

Your sentence, as written, is simply in the present. If the story is about something that already happened, you’d change it to decidió.

Can we omit Ella and just say Decide cancelar la clase hoy y aceptar una nueva fecha?

Yes. In Spanish, the subject pronoun is usually optional because the verb ending shows the person:

Decide cancelar la clase…
- The form decide tells you it’s he / she / usted.
If context makes it clear we’re talking about ella, you don’t need Ella.

We usually keep Ella when:

We want to emphasize it’s she (not someone else), or
There might be ambiguity about who the subject is.

Why do we say la clase and not just clase?

Spanish uses the definite article (el / la / los / las) more often than English does. When referring to a specific, known class, Spanish normally says:

la clase = the class (a particular one both speaker and listener know about).

If you dropped the article (cancelar clase), it would sound incomplete or ungrammatical in standard Spanish in this context. You usually need:

cancelar la clase
suspender la clase
tener clase (even here: tener clase = to have class).

Where can hoy go in this sentence? Are other positions possible?

Yes, hoy is fairly flexible. All of these are possible, with only slight differences in rhythm or emphasis:

Ella decide cancelar la clase hoy y aceptar una nueva fecha.
Ella decide hoy cancelar la clase y aceptar una nueva fecha.
Hoy ella decide cancelar la clase y aceptar una nueva fecha.

Nuances:

Position right after la clase (version 1) is very natural: you’re canceling the class today.
Placing hoy earlier (Ella decide hoy… / Hoy ella decide…) shifts emphasis more onto when the decision is made rather than on which class (today’s class) is being canceled.

What is the difference between una nueva fecha, una fecha nueva, and otra fecha?

All can translate as a new date, but there are nuances:

una nueva fecha
- Common way to say a new/alternative date (another date to replace the old one).
- Slight implication of replacement: a new date instead of the original.
una fecha nueva
- Also a new date, but a bit more like brand-new date, with more literal emphasis on newness.
- The difference is subtle; many speakers use the two interchangeably here.
otra fecha
- Literally another date.
- Emphasizes another, different one, without directly highlighting the idea of "newness" as strongly as nueva.

In your sentence, una nueva fecha is the most natural to express rescheduling.

Why don’t we say decide que cancela la clase or decide que cancele la clase?

You can say:

Ella decide que cancela la clase hoy.
Ella decide que va a cancelar la clase hoy.
Ella decide que cancelará la clase hoy.

Or, if another person is canceling:

Ella decide que él cancele la clase. (subjunctive)

But when the same subject decides and performs the action, Spanish strongly prefers:

decidir + infinitive
- Ella decide cancelar la clase hoy.

The que + finite verb structure is more common when the subject changes:

Ella decide que nosotros cancelemos la clase.
- She decides that we cancel the class.

Could we say Ella decide cancelar la clase de hoy instead of la clase hoy?

Yes, both are correct but slightly different in focus:

Ella decide cancelar la clase hoy.
- She decides today to cancel the class (which is presumably today’s class, understood from context).
Ella decide cancelar la clase de hoy.
- She decides to cancel today’s class specifically (explicitly marking that this is the class scheduled for today).

Often, la clase de hoy is clearer if there are multiple classes (today, tomorrow, next week) and you want to specify today’s one.