Breakdown of Quiero beber tres vasos de agua.
yo
I
querer
to want
el agua
the water
beber
to drink
de
of
el vaso
the glass
tres
three
Questions & Answers about Quiero beber tres vasos de agua.
Why is beber used after quiero instead of a subjunctive form?
Verbs of desire like querer are normally followed by an infinitive when you talk about wanting to do something yourself.
- Quiero beber = “I want to drink.”
If you used the subjunctive (Quiero que beba), you’d be expressing “I want (someone else) to drink.” So to say “I want to drink,” always use querer + infinitive.
Can I use tomar instead of beber?
Why is it tres vasos de agua and not tres aguas?
Agua is an uncountable noun, so you can’t directly count “waters.” Instead, Spanish uses a container or measure + de + substance:
Can I say Quiero beberme tres vasos de agua? What does the reflexive mean?
Yes. Spanish often adds a reflexive pronoun to verbs of consumption for emphasis:
- Quiero beberme tres vasos de agua.
This doesn’t change the core meaning (“I want to drink three glasses of water”) but adds a nuance of “drink it all up” or “finish them.”
How would you replace tres vasos de agua with a direct object pronoun?
Why is vasos masculine if agua is feminine?
The gender comes from the noun vaso (the container), which is masculine, not from agua (the substance). So you count los vasos even though they contain water.
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