No quiero abandonar el proyecto.

Spanish often drops subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows who the subject is.

• quiero = I want
• so yo is understood automatically

That means:

• No quiero abandonar el proyecto = perfectly natural
• Yo no quiero abandonar el proyecto = also correct, but more emphatic

You would add yo if you want contrast or emphasis, for example:

• Yo no quiero abandonar el proyecto, pero ellos sí.
  I don’t want to abandon the project, but they do.

In Spanish, standard negation usually places no directly before the conjugated verb.

So:

• No quiero... = I do not want...
• No tengo... = I do not have...
• No puedo... = I cannot...

That is the normal pattern.
So No quiero abandonar el proyecto follows the standard Spanish word order for negation.

Querer is the infinitive form, meaning to want.
In the sentence, you need the conjugated form because the action is being linked to I.

Present tense of querer:

• yo quiero = I want
• tú quieres = you want
• él/ella quiere = he/she wants
• nosotros queremos = we want
• vosotros queréis = you all want
• ellos quieren = they want

So quiero is the first person singular form: I want.

After a conjugated verb like querer, the next verb often stays in the infinitive.

Pattern:

• querer + infinitive
• I want + to do something

Examples:

• Quiero comer. = I want to eat.
• Quiero salir. = I want to go out.
• No quiero abandonar el proyecto. = I don’t want to abandon the project.

So:

• quiero = the conjugated verb
• abandonar = the infinitive that tells you what the person wants to do

Yes, abandonar often sounds a bit stronger than simple leave.

Depending on context, it can mean:

• to abandon
• to leave
• to give up
• to quit

With el proyecto, it can suggest:

• leaving the project behind
• giving up on it
• stopping involvement in it

It can sound more serious or more final than some alternatives. In many contexts, English might translate it naturally as leave or give up on, even though the literal idea is abandon.

Yes, you could, but the nuance changes.

• abandonar el proyecto often sounds more like abandoning, giving up on, or walking away from the project
• dejar el proyecto often sounds more like leaving or quitting the project

In many real situations, both are possible, but abandonar can feel stronger, more dramatic, or more formal.

So:

• No quiero abandonar el proyecto = I don’t want to abandon/give up on the project
• No quiero dejar el proyecto = I don’t want to leave/quit the project

Spanish uses articles like el, la, los, las more often than English does.

Here, el proyecto means:

• the project

It refers to a specific project that both speaker and listener can identify.

Without the article, proyecto would usually sound incomplete in this kind of sentence.
So abandonar el proyecto is the natural form.

Also:

• proyecto is masculine singular
• so the article is el

This is the most neutral and natural order:

• No quiero abandonar el proyecto.

Spanish word order is somewhat flexible, but changes usually add emphasis or sound less neutral.

For example:

• Yo no quiero abandonar el proyecto.
  adds emphasis to I
• El proyecto no quiero abandonarlo.
  sounds more marked and is used for emphasis

For a learner, the safest default is:

• No + conjugated verb + infinitive + object

So the original sentence is the best standard version.

You can replace el proyecto with lo, because proyecto is masculine singular.

There are two common positions:

• No lo quiero abandonar.
• No quiero abandonarlo.

Both are correct.

This happens because with an infinitive, object pronouns can go:

1. before the conjugated verb
2. attached to the infinitive

That is a very common Spanish pattern.

A simple Spain pronunciation guide would be something like:

• no KYE-ro a-ban-do-NAR el pro-YEC-to

A few key points:

• quiero has a ye sound: KYE-ro
• abandonar is stressed on the last syllable: -NAR
• proyecto is stressed on yec: pro-YEC-to
• in much of Spain, the c in proyecto is not special here because it is before t, so it sounds like a normal k
• the r in quiero is a soft tapped r, not the strong rolled rr

A more Spain-style IPA pronunciation would be approximately:

• [no ˈkjeɾo aβandoˈnaɾ el pɾoˈʝekto]

Yes. The conjugated verb quiero is in the present tense.

So literally, it means:

• I do not want to abandon the project

Even though the second action, abandonar, has not happened, the wanting is present.
This is very normal in both Spanish and English:

• I want to leave
• I don’t want to go
• No quiero abandonar el proyecto

So the sentence is present tense, with an infinitive describing the action involved.

Yes. Querer is an irregular verb in the present tense.

It has a stem change:

• e → ie

So:

• querer
• quiero
• quieres
• quiere
• queremos
• queréis
• quieren

Notice that nosotros and vosotros keep e:

• queremos
• queréis

This is a very common type of Spanish stem-changing verb.