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Questions & Answers about No quiero suspender el examen.
Why is suspender in the infinitive form after quiero?
In Spanish, when verbs like querer, poder or necesitar are followed by another verb that has the same subject, the second verb stays in the infinitive. Here, “I” is the subject of both actions: “I don’t want to fail.” You would only use a different mood (like the subjunctive) if the subject changed.
Could I say No quiero que suspenda el examen instead?
Yes, but that changes the meaning. No quiero que suspenda el examen means “I don’t want him/her to fail the exam.” The conjunction que and the subjunctive form suspenda appear because the subject of the second verb is different.
What does suspender el examen mean in Spain?
In Spain, suspender un examen specifically means to fail an exam. It does not mean to postpone it in this context.
Does suspender ever mean “to suspend” or “to postpone,” like in English?
Yes. Outside the context of exams, suspender can mean “to suspend,” “to cancel,” or “to call off” (for example, suspender una clase = “to cancel a class”). But with examen in Spain, it always means “to fail.”
Why is the definite article el used before examen? Can I drop it?
Spanish normally requires a definite article with specific or general nouns. Saying suspender examen without el sounds unnatural and incomplete. You need el examen to refer properly to “the exam.”
Where is the stress in suspender?
The stress falls on the last syllable: sus-pen-DER. All regular -er verbs without an accent mark follow the rule of stressing the penultimate syllable, but since suspender ends in -r, it shifts to the last syllable.