No quiero cometer errores cuando hablo en público.

I do not want to make mistakes when I speak in public.

Breakdown of No quiero cometer errores cuando hablo en público.

• yo: I
• en: in
• hablar: to speak
• cuando: when

Questions & Answers about No quiero cometer errores cuando hablo en público.

Why is cometer in the infinitive after quiero?

Because after querer + another action, Spanish normally uses the infinitive of the second verb.

• quiero comer = I want to eat
• quiero estudiar = I want to study
• quiero cometer errores = I want to make mistakes

So quiero cometer is the normal structure for to want to do something.

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Why does the sentence start with No?

In Spanish, no usually goes right before the conjugated verb to make the sentence negative.

Here, the main conjugated verb is quiero, so:

• No quiero... = I do not want...

You would not normally say Quiero no cometer errores unless you specifically want to emphasize not making mistakes rather than the whole idea of not wanting. In most everyday situations, No quiero cometer errores is the natural choice.

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Why is it cometer errores and not hacer errores?

Because cometer errores is the standard Spanish collocation.

Even though English uses make a mistake/error, Spanish most naturally says:

• cometer un error
• cometer errores

Spanish often does not match English word-for-word in these fixed combinations. So hacer errores sounds unnatural in standard Spanish.

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