Hoy quiero beber medio vaso de agua.

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Breakdown of Hoy quiero beber medio vaso de agua.

• querer: to want
• el agua: the water
• beber: to drink
• hoy: today
• de: of
• el vaso: the glass
• medio: half

Questions & Answers about Hoy quiero beber medio vaso de agua.

Why is hoy at the beginning of the sentence?

Placing hoy at the beginning emphasizes that this action is happening today. In Spanish, adverbs of time can appear at various positions, but it is quite common to put time references at the start for clarity or emphasis. You could also say Quiero beber medio vaso de agua hoy, and the meaning would still be the same—just a slight shift in where you put the emphasis.

Why do we use beber instead of tomar?

Both beber and tomar can mean to drink in Spanish. Beber is more directly translated as to drink, while tomar can also mean to take. In everyday Spanish (especially in Spain), beber and tomar are often used interchangeably for drinks, though beber is slightly more specific to drinking.

What does medio vaso mean exactly?

Medio vaso means half a glass. In Spanish, you can say medio vaso de agua to indicate that you only want or only have half the amount of a full glass. Another option might be la mitad de un vaso de agua, but medio vaso is more concise and very common.

Why is agua treated like a masculine word sometimes, even though it’s feminine?

Agua is actually a feminine noun, but because it starts with a stressed a sound (á), we use the masculine article el for ease of pronunciation: el agua. Still, adjectives that refer to agua will be in the feminine form (for instance, el agua fría, not el agua frío).

Why is de used before agua?

Spanish often uses de before a noun when specifying the content of a container. For example, un vaso de agua, una taza de café, or un plato de sopa. In this case, medio vaso de agua follows the same structure, indicating that water is what’s inside the glass.