Breakdown of No quiero mirar el móvil todo el rato en la biblioteca.
Questions & Answers about No quiero mirar el móvil todo el rato en la biblioteca.
Spanish usually leaves out subject pronouns when the verb ending already shows who the subject is.
In quiero, the -o ending clearly indicates yo (I).
So No quiero mirar el móvil… already means I don’t want to look at the phone…, and yo would only be added for emphasis or contrast (e.g. Yo no quiero, pero él sí = I don’t want to, but he does).
No quiero mirar means I don’t want to look, expressing a desire/intention, not an action happening now.
If you said no miro el móvil todo el rato en la biblioteca, it would mean I don’t look at my phone all the time in the library (a habitual fact about you).
The structure querer + infinitive (quiero mirar) is the normal way to say I want to do X or I don’t want to do X in Spanish.
Mirar = to look (at), an intentional action.
Ver = to see, more passive; you can see things without trying.
- No quiero mirar el móvil = I don’t want to look at the phone (on purpose).
- No quiero ver el móvil would sound more like I don’t want to see it (have it in my sight), and is less natural in this context.
For “checking your phone”, mirar el móvil is what people typically say.
Spanish often uses the definite article (el, la) where English uses my, especially when it’s obvious whose thing it is.
In context, el móvil will usually be understood as my phone, because it’s about your own behavior.
You can say mi móvil to be explicit, but el móvil sounds very natural and neutral in Spanish.
In Spain, el móvil is the everyday word for mobile phone / cell phone.
teléfono is also correct, but by itself it can mean any phone (landline or mobile).
celular is used mainly in Latin America; in Spain it sounds clearly Latin American.
So for Spanish from Spain, el móvil is the most idiomatic choice.
Todo el rato literally means all the time / the whole time, but with a slightly informal, conversational tone.
It often implies that something happens too frequently or is a bit annoying: Está hablando todo el rato (He’s talking non-stop).
Other options:
- todo el tiempo – also “all the time”, slightly more neutral.
- siempre – “always”, more absolute and less like “constantly during this period”.
In your sentence, todo el rato suggests “constantly / non-stop” while you’re in the library.
Yes, you can move todo el rato, and the meaning is basically the same:
- No quiero mirar el móvil todo el rato en la biblioteca.
- No quiero mirar todo el rato el móvil en la biblioteca.
Both sound natural.
The first focuses slightly more on “using the phone constantly while there”; the second slightly on “constantly looking at the phone (as the activity) in that place”. In everyday speech, the difference is minimal.
Spanish uses a (the personal a) mainly before direct objects that are people (or treated like people):
- Miro a mi madre. – I look at my mother.
With things, you normally don’t use a:
- Miro el móvil. – I look at the phone.
So mirar el móvil is correct; mirar al móvil sounds wrong in standard Spanish.
En means “in / inside / at (location)”, while a means “to” (movement towards a place).
- en la biblioteca = in the library (location)
- a la biblioteca = to the library (destination)
The sentence describes your behavior while you are there, so en la biblioteca is the correct choice.
In Spanish, singular countable nouns almost always need an article (el / la / un / una) unless there’s a very specific reason not to use one.
Places like la biblioteca, el supermercado, el trabajo normally take the article when you’re talking about them in a concrete, real-world sense.
So en la biblioteca is the natural form; en biblioteca sounds incomplete or like technical jargon, not everyday Spanish.
Yes, that word order is correct and natural:
- En la biblioteca no quiero mirar el móvil todo el rato.
Starting with En la biblioteca puts emphasis on the place (“In the library, I don’t want to…”).
The original order is also fine; Spanish allows some flexibility with adverbial phrases like en la biblioteca.
Yes.
No quiero mirar el móvil… is the normal, neutral way to say I don’t want to look at my phone….
Quiero no mirar el móvil… literally is I want not to look at my phone…; it sounds more marked, as if you’re emphasizing the desire to avoid that behavior (almost like “I want to succeed in not looking at it”).
In everyday speech, use No quiero mirar el móvil….