No quiero tirar la basura en el parque.

I do not want to throw the trash in the park.

Breakdown of No quiero tirar la basura en el parque.

• yo: I
• querer: to want
• en: in
• el parque: the park
• no: not
• tirar: to throw
• la basura: the waste

Questions & Answers about No quiero tirar la basura en el parque.

Why is no placed before quiero instead of before tirar?

In Spanish, the negative word no almost always goes directly before the conjugated verb in the sentence.

• Here, the conjugated verb is quiero (from querer).
• Tirar is an infinitive (unconjugated), so no does not go directly before it.

So you get:

• No quiero tirar la basura en el parque.
  (no
  • quiero (conjugated) + tirar (infinitive))

You cannot say Quiero no tirar la basura en el parque in normal Spanish; it sounds very unnatural or overly philosophical in most contexts. The standard way to negate the whole idea "to throw the trash in the park" is to put no before quiero.

Does tirar here mean literally "to throw" or "to throw away"? Why use tirar for trash?

In this context, tirar means "to throw away" / "to discard", not just "to throw" in the physical sense.

In Spain:

• tirar la basura = to throw trash away, to get rid of trash (usually into a bin)
• tirar algo can mean:
  • to physically throw something (e.g. tirar una pelota – throw a ball)
  • or to throw something away (e.g. tirar comida – throw food away)

Other verbs you might see:

• echar la basura – also used in Spain, especially echar algo a la basura (throw something in the trash).
• botar la basura – more common in Latin America, not typical in Spain.
• lanzar – more physical “to hurl/throw”, not used for “throw away trash” in everyday talk.

So in Spain, tirar la basura and echar algo a la basura are both natural. In your sentence, tirar is perfectly idiomatic.

Why is it la basura and not just basura? Can I say No quiero tirar basura en el parque?

Both are possible, but there is a nuance:

1. No quiero tirar la basura en el parque.

   • Refers more to specific trash that both speakers know about.
   • For example, the trash you are holding, the trash from your house, etc.
   • Literally: I don’t want to throw the trash in the park.

2. No quiero tirar basura en el parque.

   • Sounds more general: I don’t want to throw trash / litter in the park (in general).
   • Here basura is like a mass noun: trash as a substance, not a specific bag of trash.

In everyday speech, both are grammatically correct.

• If you are talking about your bag of rubbish from home, la basura feels natural.
• If you mean littering as an action, tirar basura (no article) sounds more like “to litter.”

Why is basura feminine? Is there a rule for that?

Basura is feminine because the word ends in -a and belongs to the group of nouns that are usually feminine:

• la basura – the trash
• una basura – a piece of trash / something rubbish

General patterns (with many exceptions, but useful):

• Nouns ending in -a → usually feminine (la casa, la mesa, la basura)
• Nouns ending in -o → usually masculine (el libro, el perro)

You mostly have to memorize gender word by word, but the ending gives a strong clue. With basura, native speakers simply learn it as feminine, so it takes la, una, mucha, esta, etc.:

• la basura
• mucha basura
• esta basura

Why is it en el parque and not al parque? What’s the difference between en and a here?

En and a express different ideas:

• en = in / on / at → location (where something happens)
• a = to / toward → direction or destination (where something is going)

In your sentence:

• en el parque = in the park → the action happens inside/within the park.
  • No quiero tirar la basura en el parque.
    I don’t want to throw the trash in the park (the park is the location).

If you used al parque (a + el = al):

• That would mean to the park (movement toward the park), e.g.:
  • Voy al parque. – I’m going to the park.

So tirar la basura al parque would sound like you are throwing the trash towards the park as a destination (e.g. from outside the park into it), which is not what is normally meant. For “in the park,” you need en el parque.

Why do we say el parque and not just parque? Can Spanish drop the article like English does?

Spanish uses the definite article much more than English, especially with places and common nouns:

• English: in parks / in school / in prison
• Spanish: en el parque, en el colegio, en la cárcel

In your sentence, en el parque is the normal, natural form:

• No quiero tirar la basura en el parque.

You could drop the article in very limited, fixed expressions (e.g. en casa, en clase), but parque does not belong to that special group. So en parque is wrong in standard Spanish. You need el.

Could I change the word order, like No la quiero tirar en el parque or No quiero tirarla en el parque? Are both correct?

Yes, when you replace la basura with the pronoun la (it, feminine), you have two standard options:

1. No la quiero tirar en el parque.
2. No quiero tirarla en el parque.

Both are correct and natural.

Rules:

• With a conjugated verb + infinitive, object pronouns can:
  • go before the conjugated verb: No la quiero tirar…
  • or be attached to the infinitive: No quiero tirarla…

What you cannot say is:

• No quiero la tirar en el parque. ❌ (incorrect placement)

So the correct versions meaning “I don’t want to throw it (the trash) in the park” are:

• No la quiero tirar en el parque.
• No quiero tirarla en el parque.

Why is it quiero and not quero? How is querer conjugated in the present tense?

Querer is an irregular verb with a stem change in the present tense: e → ie in most forms.

Present indicative of querer:

• yo quiero – I want
• tú quieres – you want
• él / ella / usted quiere – he / she / you (formal) want(s)
• nosotros / nosotras queremos – we want (no stem change here)
• vosotros / vosotras queréis – you (plural, Spain) want (no stem change)
• ellos / ellas / ustedes quieren – they / you (plural) want

So:

• Not yo quero, but yo quiero.

In your sentence:

• No quiero tirar la basura en el parque.
  = I don’t want to throw the trash in the park.

How would I say “I don’t want you to throw the trash in the park” in Spanish?

To express “I don’t want you to do X”, Spanish normally uses:

no quiero que + [subjunctive]

So:

• I don’t want you to throw the trash in the park.
  → No quiero que tires la basura en el parque. (talking to tú)

Other persons:

• No quiero que tire la basura en el parque. (usted)
• No quiero que tiréis la basura en el parque. (vosotros, Spain)
• No quiero que tiren la basura en el parque. (ustedes / ellos)

Key point: after que, you need the present subjunctive (tires, not tiras).

Does tirar la basura also mean “to take out the trash” in Spain?

Usually no. There is a distinction:

• tirar la basura: to throw the trash away (the act of discarding it, often into a bin, can or container).
• sacar la basura: to take the trash out (from inside the house to outside, to the street bin, etc.).

In Spain, if you say:

• Tengo que sacar la basura.
  → I have to take out the trash.

If you say:

• No quiero tirar la basura en el parque.
  → I don’t want to throw the trash (away) in the park (i.e., I don’t want to dump it there).

So tirar focuses on the act of discarding, while sacar focuses on the act of taking it out of the house.

If I want to say “I don’t want to litter in the park”, is No quiero tirar la basura en el parque the best option?

No quiero tirar la basura en el parque is understandable, but it may sound more like “I don’t want to throw this specific trash in the park.”

To express “I don’t want to litter” (in general), Spanish speakers might say:

• No quiero tirar basura en el parque.
  (without la, sounds more general: not litter in the park)

Or more explicitly:

• No quiero ensuciar el parque. – I don’t want to make the park dirty.
• No quiero tirar papeles ni basura en el parque. – I don’t want to throw papers or trash in the park.

So:

• For litter in general: tirar basura or ensuciar el parque.
• For a specific bag of trash: tirar la basura.