No quiero avergonzar a mi hija.

In Spanish, no normally goes directly before the conjugated verb to make the sentence negative.

So:

• Quiero avergonzar a mi hija = I want to embarrass my daughter
• No quiero avergonzar a mi hija = I don’t want to embarrass my daughter

Spanish does not usually use an extra helping verb like do in negatives, so you do not get something like No hago querer... here.

Because after querer to mean to want to do something, Spanish uses the infinitive.

The pattern is:

• querer + infinitive

Examples:

• Quiero comer = I want to eat
• Quiero salir = I want to leave
• No quiero avergonzar a mi hija = I don’t want to embarrass my daughter

Here, quiero is the only conjugated verb, and avergonzar stays in the infinitive because it expresses the action the speaker wants or does not want to do.

Because this sentence means to embarrass someone else, not to feel ashamed oneself.

• avergonzar a alguien = to embarrass / shame someone
• avergonzarse = to be ashamed, to feel ashamed

So:

• No quiero avergonzar a mi hija = I don’t want to embarrass my daughter
• No quiero avergonzarme = I don’t want to be ashamed / I don’t want to feel embarrassed

The non-reflexive form is used because mi hija is the object receiving the action.

This is the personal a.

In Spanish, when the direct object is a specific person or sometimes a pet, you usually put a before it.

So:

• Veo la casa = I see the house
• Veo a mi hija = I see my daughter

Here, mi hija is a specific human being, so Spanish requires a:

• No quiero avergonzar a mi hija

This a does not mean to here. It is just a grammar marker used with personal direct objects.

Because mi without an accent is the possessive adjective meaning my.

• mi hija = my daughter

Mí with an accent is a pronoun, usually used after a preposition:

• para mí = for me
• a mí = to me

So:

• mi hija = my daughter
• a mí = to me

They are different words with different jobs.

In Spanish, possessive adjectives like mi, tu, su, nuestro normally come directly before the noun without an article.

So you say:

• mi hija = my daughter
• tu madre = your mother
• su casa = his/her/their house

Not:

• la mi hija ❌

That kind of structure exists in some older or regional uses, but in standard modern Spanish, mi hija is the normal form.

Yes. You can replace a mi hija with la, because hija is feminine singular.

So:

• No quiero avergonzar a mi hija
• No quiero avergonzarla

Both mean the same thing.

With a conjugated verb plus an infinitive, Spanish often allows two positions for the object pronoun:

• No quiero avergonzarla
• No la quiero avergonzar

Both are correct. No quiero avergonzarla is often felt to be a little more compact and natural, but both are common.

The sentence as given is the most neutral, standard order:

• No quiero avergonzar a mi hija

But Spanish word order can change for emphasis. For example:

• A mi hija no la quiero avergonzar

This puts extra focus on my daughter, as if contrasting her with someone else or strongly highlighting her.

So the original sentence is the best neutral version, but other orders are possible depending on emphasis.

In standard Spain Spanish:

• avergonzar is roughly a-ber-gon-THAR
• hija is roughly EE-ha, but with a stronger throaty sound for the j

A few helpful notes:

• h is silent in Spanish, so the h in hija is not pronounced.
• j in hija has a strong guttural sound, not an English j.
• In most of Spain, z is pronounced like th in think, so avergonzar has that th sound at the end.

That means the Spain pronunciation differs from much of Latin America, where z is usually pronounced like s.

Yes, in this sentence it works very much like daughter in English.

• mi hija = my daughter

But one useful thing to remember is that Spanish family words are often used very naturally and frequently without extra words. So mi hija sounds completely normal and direct here.

Also, because hija is feminine, if you later replace it with a pronoun, you use la:

• No quiero avergonzarla = I don’t want to embarrass her

Not exactly. No quiero avergonzar a mi hija means I don’t want to embarrass my daughter — in other words, I would be the one causing the embarrassment.

If you want to say I don’t want my daughter to be embarrassed, Spanish would usually use a different structure, for example:

• No quiero que mi hija se avergüence
• No quiero que mi hija pase vergüenza

So the original sentence clearly means I don’t want to embarrass her, not just I don’t want her to feel embarrassed in general.