Breakdown of No quiero contagiar a mi familia con la gripe.
Questions & Answers about No quiero contagiar a mi familia con la gripe.
In Spanish, certain verbs are followed directly by an infinitive verb without any preposition. Querer (to want) is one of them.
So you say:
- No quiero contagiar a mi familia. – I don’t want to infect my family.
You do not add a between quiero and contagiar. That would be ungrammatical:
✗ No quiero a contagiar…
Other verbs that work like this:
- Puedo salir. – I can go out.
- Debo estudiar. – I must study.
- Sé conducir. – I know how to drive.
A appears here in a different role: it introduces the direct object a mi familia, not the infinitive:
- No quiero contagiar a mi familia.
contagiar (verb) → a mi familia (direct object, with personal a)
Both verbs exist in Spanish, but they are used differently in everyday speech.
Contagiar is the normal, everyday verb for passing an illness from one person to another.
- Me ha contagiado la gripe. – He/She has passed the flu to me.
- No quiero contagiar a nadie. – I don’t want to infect anybody.
Infectar is more technical and is often used for wounds, tissues, or things rather than the everyday idea of "giving someone the flu":
- La herida se ha infectado. – The wound has become infected.
- El agua está infectada de bacterias. – The water is infected with bacteria.
In your sentence, No quiero contagiar a mi familia con la gripe, a Spaniard would naturally choose contagiar, not infectar.
contagiar (a alguien) – to infect someone / to pass an illness to someone
- No quiero contagiar a mi familia. – I don’t want to infect my family.
contagiarse (de algo / con algo) – to get infected / to catch something
- No quiero que mi familia se contagie de gripe. – I don’t want my family to catch the flu.
- Me he contagiado con la gripe. – I’ve caught the flu.
So:
- contagiar a mi familia = infect my family (I am the source)
- mi familia se contagia = my family gets infected (they catch it, maybe from me or elsewhere)
Both structures are common in Spain:
- No quiero contagiar a mi familia.
- No quiero que mi familia se contagie.
Spanish uses the personal a before a direct object that is a specific person or group of people.
Since mi familia refers to specific people, you need a:
- No quiero contagiar a mi familia. – Correct
- ✗ No quiero contagiar mi familia. – Sounds wrong to a native speaker.
Other examples:
- Veo a Juan. – I see Juan.
- Ayudo a mis padres. – I help my parents.
- Quiero a mi familia. – I love my family.
So here:
- Verb: contagiar
- Direct object (people): a mi familia → so we add a.
In Spanish, you do not combine a possessive adjective with a definite article in front of a noun.
You say:
- mi familia – my family
not: - ✗ la mi familia
Correct forms:
- mi casa – my house
- tu coche – your car
- nuestra ciudad – our city
Where you do see la familia is without the possessive:
- La familia está bien. – The family is fine.
- Voy a casa de la familia de Ana. – I’m going to Ana’s family’s house.
So it’s either:
- mi familia
or - la familia,
but not la mi familia.
Both con la gripe and de gripe / de la gripe are found, but they aren’t used in exactly the same way and not all combinations sound equally natural.
In practice:
- With contagiar, in Spain you will mainly hear either:
- contagiar a alguien con gripe / con la gripe, or
- contagiar de gripe a alguien
Examples:
- No quiero contagiar a mi familia con la gripe.
- No quiero contagiar de gripe a mi familia.
So:
- con gripe / con la gripe → “with the flu”
- de gripe → “with / of flu”, very idiomatic with contagiar(se) de:
- Me he contagiado de gripe.
All of these are possible in Spain:
- No quiero contagiar a mi familia con la gripe. (very natural)
- No quiero contagiar de gripe a mi familia. (also natural)
- No quiero que mi familia se contagie de gripe.
Gender:
- gripe is a feminine noun → la gripe, not el gripe.
Use of the article:
With diseases in Spanish, both with and without article are used, but:- When the disease is used more like a specific thing or entity, the article is very common:
- La gripe es muy contagiosa. – Flu is very contagious.
- In some shorter expressions, you can drop the article:
- Tengo gripe. – I have flu.
- He cogido gripe. – I’ve caught flu.
- When the disease is used more like a specific thing or entity, the article is very common:
In your sentence:
- No quiero contagiar a mi familia con la gripe.
means something like “with the flu (that I have)” and using la feels very natural and standard.
Yes, you can, and the difference is mainly in focus and structure:
No quiero contagiar a mi familia con la gripe.
- Structure: [I] don’t want to infect [my family] with [the flu].
- Focus: you as a possible source of infection.
- You are the one doing the contagiar.
No quiero que mi familia se contagie con la gripe.
- Structure: I don’t want [my family] to get infected with the flu.
- Focus: your family ending up infected, not necessarily by you.
- You are talking about their state (they get infected / catch it).
Both are correct in Spain, but:
- The original sentence clearly implies you might give them the flu.
- The second is more general: you simply don’t want them to catch it at all.
In Spanish, no normally comes right before the conjugated verb:
- No quiero contagiar a mi familia.
- No puedo salir.
- No entiendo.
If there are infinitives or object pronouns, no still goes before the conjugated verb:
- No la quiero contagiar.
- No quiero contagiarla.
You don’t split no and the conjugated verb with other words, and you don’t move no to the end of the sentence like in English (“I want to infect my family not” is impossible in Spanish).
Spanish also allows and often requires double negatives with no:
- No quiero nada. – I don’t want anything.
- No veo a nadie. – I don’t see anyone.
You can say all of them; the difference is mainly tone and politeness.
No quiero contagiar a mi familia.
- Present indicative.
- Clear, direct statement of fact.
- Neutral tone.
No querría contagiar a mi familia.
- Conditional of querer.
- Softer, more hypothetical or polite.
- Similar to “I wouldn’t want to infect my family.”
No quisiera contagiar a mi familia.
- Imperfect subjunctive used in a polite / softening way.
- Very common as a more courteous way of speaking.
- Also feels like “I wouldn’t like to infect my family.”
In everyday speech in Spain, No quiero… is perfectly normal and not rude here. The conditional/subjunctive forms just sound more formal or cautious.
Yes, Spanish allows some flexibility in word order, though some versions sound more natural than others.
These are all grammatically possible:
- No quiero contagiar a mi familia con la gripe. – Most natural.
- No quiero contagiar con la gripe a mi familia. – Also correct; a bit more emphasis on “with the flu”.
- A mi familia no quiero contagiarla con la gripe. – Very emphatic: “As for my family, I don’t want to infect them with the flu.”
However, some orders would sound strange or unnatural, such as:
- ✗ No quiero con la gripe contagiar a mi familia. – Grammatically possible but very odd in normal conversation.
For learners, the safest and most natural order is:
- No quiero contagiar a mi familia con la gripe.
Yes, you can use a direct object pronoun to replace mi familia:
- No quiero contagiar a mi familia con la gripe.
→ No la quiero contagiar con la gripe.
→ No quiero contagiarla con la gripe.
Notes:
- mi familia is feminine singular (like la familia) → pronoun la.
- With a conjugated verb + infinitive, the object pronoun can go:
- before the conjugated verb: No la quiero contagiar…
- attached to the infinitive: No quiero contagiarla…
Both positions are completely correct and common in Spain.