No quiero perder el contacto con mi familia.

I do not want to lose contact with my family.

Breakdown of No quiero perder el contacto con mi familia.

• la familia: the family
• yo: I
• mi: my
• con: with

Questions & Answers about No quiero perder el contacto con mi familia.

Why does the sentence start with No? Why not put no later in the sentence?

In Spanish, basic negation is formed by putting no directly before the conjugated verb.

• No quiero perder el contacto… = I don’t want to lose contact…

You can’t move no later in the sentence (e.g. Quiero no perder… is grammatical but means “I want not to lose…”, which is a different nuance and much less common).

Why is it quiero perder and not something like quiero pierdo?

In Spanish, verbs like querer, poder, necesitar, saber (how to), etc., are followed by an infinitive (the base form):

• quiero perder = I want to lose
• puedo hablar = I can speak
• necesito estudiar = I need to study

So after quiero, you use perder (infinitive), not pierdo (present indicative form).

Why do we say el contacto and not just contacto or un contacto?