Questions & Answers about No quiero contagiar a mi amigo.
Why do we need to use a before mi amigo?
In Spanish, the personal a is used before a direct object that is a person (or a beloved pet). It doesn’t have a direct equivalent in English, but it’s a marker indicating that the object is a person. Hence, we say contagiar a mi amigo rather than contagiar mi amigo.
Why is the verb contagiar in the infinitive form here?
After quiero, which is a conjugated form of querer, any verb that follows remains in the infinitive. So if you want to express “I don’t want to do something,” you say No quiero + [infinitive] (for example, No quiero comer, No quiero hablar, No quiero contagiar, etc.).
Do we ever use the subjunctive with contagiar in a similar structure?
Not in this exact expression. Here, the structure No quiero contagiar a mi amigo does not require the subjunctive. However, if you change the sentence to something like No quiero que mi amigo se contagie, then the dependent clause uses the subjunctive (se contagie) because it’s expressing a desire for someone else not to get infected.
Is contagiar only used in the context of illnesses?