La profesora quiere solucionar la situación en clase.

The teacher wants to solve the situation in class.

Breakdown of La profesora quiere solucionar la situación en clase.

• querer: to want
• en: in
• la profesora: the teacher
• la clase: the class
• la situación: the situation
• solucionar: to solve

Questions & Answers about La profesora quiere solucionar la situación en clase.

Why is it la profesora and not el profesora or la profesor?

In Spanish, nouns that refer to people usually have a grammatical gender that often matches the natural gender:

• el profesor = male teacher
• la profesora = female teacher

The ending -or is typically masculine. The feminine form is usually created by adding -a:

• profesor → profesora
• actor → actriz (irregular change)
• director → directora

Because we’re talking about a female teacher, we must use the feminine article la and the feminine noun profesora:

• la profesora = the (female) teacher

Why is quiere used here, and how is it formed?

Quiere is the third person singular (he/she/it/you formal) present tense of querer (to want).

Conjugation of querer (present indicative):

• yo quiero – I want
• tú quieres – you want (informal singular)
• él / ella / usted quiere – he / she wants, you (formal) want
• nosotros / nosotras queremos – we want
• vosotros / vosotras queréis – you all want (informal plural, Spain)
• ellos / ellas / ustedes quieren – they / you all want

Our subject is la profesora (she), so we need quiere:

• La profesora quiere… = The teacher wants…

Why is it quiere solucionar and not something like quiere a solucionar or quiere de solucionar?

In Spanish, some verbs are followed directly by an infinitive without any preposition. Querer is one of them.

The pattern is:

• querer + infinitive = to want to do something

Examples:

• Quiero comer. – I want to eat.
• Queremos viajar. – We want to travel.
• La profesora quiere solucionar la situación. – The teacher wants to solve the situation.

So adding a preposition (a, de, etc.) here would be incorrect:

• ❌ quiere a solucionar
• ❌ quiere de solucionar
• ✅ quiere solucionar

What does solucionar mean, and could you use other verbs instead?

Solucionar means to solve or to sort out, usually referring to problems or situations.

Close synonyms:

• resolver – to resolve/solve
• arreglar – to fix, to sort out (more informal in this context)

All of these can work here, with slight nuances:

• La profesora quiere solucionar la situación.
• La profesora quiere resolver la situación.
• La profesora quiere arreglar la situación.

All would be understood as The teacher wants to solve/fix/sort out the situation, though solucionar and resolver sound a bit more neutral/formal than arreglar.

Why do we say la situación and not just situación without an article?

In Spanish, you normally need an article before a singular, countable noun unless another determiner is used. Situación here is:

• singular
• specific (it’s a particular situation everyone knows about)

So we use the definite article la:

• la situación = the situation

If you said una situación, it would mean a situation / some situation or other, less specific:

• La profesora quiere solucionar una situación en clase.
  → The teacher wants to solve a (certain) situation in class (sounds like there are various possible situations; this is one of them).

In the given sentence, la situación feels like the known problem.

Is la situación the direct object of solucionar?

Yes.

Structure of the main part:

• La profesora – subject
• quiere solucionar – verb phrase (querer + infinitive)
• la situación – direct object (what she wants to solve)

You could check this with a “what?” question:

• ¿Qué quiere solucionar la profesora?
  → la situación

Why is it en clase and not en la clase?

Both are grammatically correct, but they differ slightly in usage and nuance.

1. en clase (no article)

   • Often used like a set phrase, meaning in class / during class / in lesson time in a general sense.
   • Focuses on the context or environment of teaching/learning.
   • Very common in Spain:
     • No hables en clase. – Don’t talk in class.
     • Mañana tenemos un examen en clase. – Tomorrow we have a test in class.

2. en la clase (with article)

   • More concrete: in the classroom or in that specific class.
   • Emphasizes the specific group or the physical place:
     • Hay 25 alumnos en la clase. – There are 25 students in the class.
     • La situación en la clase de matemáticas es complicada. – The situation in the maths class is complicated.

In La profesora quiere solucionar la situación en clase, en clase sounds like she wants to solve it during class time / as part of the lesson, not necessarily emphasizing a particular room.

Why do we use en and not another preposition like a or de before clase?

Spanish often uses en for location or context, similar to in or at:

• en casa – at home
• en el trabajo – at work
• en clase – in class

Using other prepositions here would be wrong or would change the meaning:

• ❌ a clase in this sentence would suggest movement (to class), not location.
• ❌ de clase would mean of class (a different relationship).

So for “in class / during class”, en clase is the natural choice.

Could the word order be different, like La profesora quiere solucionar en clase la situación?

Yes, Spanish word order is flexible. All of these are grammatically possible:

1. La profesora quiere solucionar la situación en clase.
2. La profesora quiere solucionar en clase la situación.
3. En clase, la profesora quiere solucionar la situación.

Differences:

• Version 1 (original) is the most neutral and natural.
• Version 2 slightly emphasizes en clase (where she wants to solve it).
• Version 3 emphasizes en clase even more by putting it first.

None change the basic meaning; they just shift the focus a little.

Why do we use an infinitive (solucionar) after quiere, and when would we use quiere que… instead?

We use querer + infinitive when the subject of both verbs is the same:

• La profesora quiere solucionar la situación.
  Subject of quiere = la profesora
  Subject of solucionar = la profesora
  → one subject, so infinitive is used.

We use querer que + subjunctive when the subject of the second verb is different:

• La profesora quiere que los alumnos solucionen la situación en clase.
  
  • Subject of quiere = la profesora
  • Subject of solucionen = los alumnos
    → two different subjects, so que + subjunctive.

So:

• Quiero comer. – I want to eat. (same subject: I)
• Quiero que comas. – I want you to eat. (different subjects: I / you)

Could we drop la profesora and just say Quiere solucionar la situación en clase?

Grammatically, yes. Spanish often drops the explicit subject because the verb ending already tells you who is doing the action.

• Quiere solucionar la situación en clase.

However:

• On its own, this sentence would be ambiguous:
  • He wants to solve… / She wants to solve… / You (formal) want to solve…
• In real conversations or texts, you can omit la profesora if:
  • it’s already clear from context who you’re talking about, and
  • there is no confusion with other possible subjects.

In an isolated example sentence, La profesora is included to make the subject clear.

Is there any difference between La profesora quiere solucionar la situación en clase and La profesora intenta solucionar la situación en clase?

Yes, they highlight slightly different things:

• quiere solucionar – wants to solve

  • Emphasizes the desire or intention.
  • Doesn’t say if she actually tries or succeeds.

• intenta solucionar – tries to solve

  • Emphasizes the effort or attempt.
  • Suggests she is actively doing something to solve it.

So:

• La profesora quiere solucionar la situación en clase.
  → We know her intention/wish.
• La profesora intenta solucionar la situación en clase.
  → We know she is making an effort.

How do you pronounce quiere and situación, and what is the accent mark doing in situación?

quiere

• Sounds roughly like “KYE-reh” (two syllables).
• quie- is one syllable because ie is a diphthong.
• Syllables: quie-re

situación

• Syllables: si-tua-ción
• The written accent on ó shows that the stress falls on the last syllable: -ción.
• Approximate sound: “see-twa-syón” (with a soft s sound for c before i).
• The -ción ending is very common in nouns: nación, canción, educación.

The accent mark doesn’t change the vowel sound dramatically, but it tells you which syllable to stress.