Breakdown of Mi amiga cumple dieciocho años y quiere organizar una fiesta grande.
querer
to want
una
a
grande
big
mi
my
y
and
la amiga
the friend
ella
she
cumplir
to turn
dieciocho
eighteen
el año
the year
organizar
to organize
la fiesta
the party
Questions & Answers about Mi amiga cumple dieciocho años y quiere organizar una fiesta grande.
Why do we use cumple here instead of another verb?
In Spanish, cumplir is the standard verb used to talk about someone turning a certain age. So cumplir dieciocho años means to turn 18 years old. In English, we use the phrase turn 18, while in Spanish we say cumplir 18.
Why is there no preposition before dieciocho años?
When saying someone’s age with cumplir, Spanish doesn’t need a preposition. The structure is simply cumplir + number + años. You don’t say cumplir a dieciocho años or anything similar; that would be incorrect.
Why do we use mi amiga and not mi amigo?
Mi amiga indicates a female friend. Spanish nouns have grammatical gender, so amiga is the feminine form for “female friend,” while amigo is the masculine form.
What is the difference between una fiesta grande and una gran fiesta?
Both translate to something like a big party in English, but there is a subtle difference. Una fiesta grande focuses on the physical size or scale (a large party), while una gran fiesta can imply more of an important or impressive party (a great party). Also, grande becomes gran when placed before a singular noun to avoid repeating the “e.”
Why does grande come after fiesta here?
Typically, descriptive adjectives come after the noun in Spanish (like una casa bonita, “a pretty house”). Putting grande after fiesta follows this usual pattern of the noun then the adjective. If you want to emphasize a figurative quality (like great), you would move gran before the noun, and that slightly changes the meaning.
Why is quiere organizar used in this sentence?
In Spanish, using querer + infinitive is a common way to say that someone wants to do something. Here, quiere organizar (she wants to organize) indicates the friend’s desire or intention to plan the party. The infinitive organizar follows quiere directly without additional words like to in English.
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