No quiero complicar las cosas cuando el día es complicado.

to be

Breakdown of No quiero complicar las cosas cuando el día es complicado.

• el día: the day
• cuando: when
• complicado: complicated
• no querer: not to want
• complicar: to complicate
• la cosa: the thing

Questions & Answers about No quiero complicar las cosas cuando el día es complicado.

Why do we use complicar (the infinitive) instead of a conjugated form after quiero?

In Spanish, whenever you have a main verb like querer, it is usually followed by an infinitive if you want to express what you want to do. So No quiero complicar means “I don’t want to complicate.” If you wrote No quiero complico, it wouldn’t make sense grammatically, because complico is a conjugated form, and you can’t conjugate the second verb that directly follows quiero.

Why do we say las cosas and not los cosas?

In Spanish, las cosas is feminine plural because cosa is a feminine noun (la cosa, “thing”). The article las matches the feminine plural noun. If it were a masculine plural noun, we would use los instead.

Why is it el día es complicado instead of el día está complicado?

Spanish has two verbs for “to be”: ser and estar. We use ser (here, es) to talk about more permanent or defining characteristics, while estar focuses on temporary states or conditions. Saying el día es complicado suggests the day is inherently difficult or complicated in its nature, as opposed to a passing condition. You could say el día está complicado if you want to emphasize a temporary or changeable situation, but es is more common for describing a general characteristic of the day.

What does cuando mean here, and can it be replaced with another word?

Cuando means “when” and is used to introduce the time factor: “when the day is complicated.” You could use other constructions like si (“if”) or mientras (“while”) in different contexts, but here, cuando is the right choice because it pinpoints a specific condition or moment in time.

Why does the sentence start with No in No quiero complicar las cosas?

In Spanish, to negate a statement, you usually place no directly before the verb. So No quiero is simply “I don’t want.” If you left out no, you’d be saying “I want to complicate things,” which is the opposite meaning.