Breakdown of Mi novio quiere estudiar español conmigo.
Questions & Answers about Mi novio quiere estudiar español conmigo.
In standard modern Spanish (including Spain), a possessive like mi replaces the article, so you normally say:
- mi novio – my boyfriend
not - el mi novio – sounds old‑fashioned or dialectal
- el novio mío – possible, but more emphatic or stylistic: “that boyfriend of mine”
So the neutral, everyday way is mi novio (possessive directly before the noun, no article).
They are two different words:
mi (no accent) = my (possessive adjective)
- mi novio, mi casa, mi libro
mí (with accent) = me after a preposition (stressed pronoun)
- para mí (for me), de mí (about me), sin mí (without me)
In Mi novio quiere estudiar español conmigo, we use mi because it means my.
In Spain:
- novio usually means boyfriend (romantic partner, male).
- novia means girlfriend (romantic partner, female).
It can also mean:
- fiancé / bridegroom (for novio)
- fiancée / bride (for novia), especially around weddings: los novios = the bride and groom.
If someone just says un amigo, that’s more like “a (male) friend”, without the romantic meaning. A more neutral “partner” is pareja:
Mi pareja quiere estudiar español conmigo.
No. Novio/novia refers to the partner’s gender, not the speaker’s:
- A woman with a male partner: mi novio
- A man with a female partner: mi novia
- A man with a male partner: mi novio
- A woman with a female partner: mi novia
The word is about who the partner is, not who is speaking.
Spanish verbs must be conjugated to match the subject.
The infinitive is querer (“to want”), but the subject is mi novio = he, so you need the 3rd person singular present:
- él / mi novio quiere – he / my boyfriend wants
The full present indicative of querer is:
- yo quiero
- tú quieres
- él/ella/usted quiere
- nosotros/as queremos
- vosotros/as queréis (Spain)
- ellos/ellas/ustedes quieren
In Spanish, querer + infinitive means “to want to do something”, and there is no preposition between querer and the infinitive:
- quiero comer – I want to eat
- queremos viajar – we want to travel
- mi novio quiere estudiar – my boyfriend wants to study
Adding a (quiere a estudiar) is incorrect here.
The pattern is:
verb of desire / intention / ability + infinitive
So with querer:
- Mi novio quiere estudiar – My boyfriend wants to study.
- Quiero aprender – I want to learn.
- No queremos salir – We don’t want to go out.
The infinitive (estudiar) is used because it’s the second verb in the “want to X” structure.
Spanish uses the personal a before direct objects that are people (or sometimes pets, or personified things), not before languages:
- Veo a María. – I see María.
- Quiero a mi perro. – I love my dog.
But for languages, no a:
- estudiar español – to study Spanish
- hablar inglés – to speak English
- practicar francés – to practise French
So al español here would be wrong as a direct object of estudiar.
In Spanish, names of languages and nationalities are not capitalized (unless they begin a sentence):
- español, inglés, francés, alemán
Similarly, adjectives of nationality are lowercase:
- Soy español. – I’m Spanish.
- Ella es francesa. – She’s French.
So español is lowercase in the middle of the sentence.
Both can refer to the Spanish language, but usage varies:
- In most of Spain, español and castellano are often used more or less interchangeably for the language.
- castellano can highlight it as the language that comes from Castile, especially in regions with their own languages (Catalan, Basque, Galician, etc.), where people may say castellano to distinguish it from those languages.
For a learner of Spanish from Spain, using español in this sentence is completely natural and standard:
- Mi novio quiere estudiar español conmigo.
Spanish has special forms for “with me / with you / with him/her/them (reflexive)”:
- conmigo – with me
- contigo – with you (tú)
- consigo – with him/her/them (in certain reflexive contexts)
You cannot say con mi or con mí to mean “with me” in modern standard Spanish. The only correct everyday form is conmigo.
Note: mí (with accent) is used after other prepositions:
- para mí (for me), sin mí (without me), de mí (about me), but conmigo (not con mí).
That word order is grammatically possible but sounds unnatural in most contexts. The normal, neutral order is:
- Mi novio quiere estudiar español conmigo.
Placing conmigo at the end is the default. You could move it earlier only for special emphasis or poetic style, but the safest and most natural position is at the end here.
If you say:
- Mi novio quiere estudiar español.
it just means “My boyfriend wants to study Spanish” in general, without specifying with whom.
Adding conmigo:
- Mi novio quiere estudiar español conmigo.
adds the idea “with me” – he wants us to do it together (at least with my participation).
You only change novio to match the partner(s):
Female partner:
Mi novia quiere estudiar español conmigo. – My girlfriend wants to study Spanish with me.More than one partner (theoretically) or talking about “my boyfriends / my girlfriends”:
Mis novios quieren estudiar español conmigo. – My boyfriends want to study Spanish with me.
Mis novias quieren estudiar español conmigo. – My girlfriends want to study Spanish with me.
Note that mi becomes mis in the plural: mis novios / mis novias.
Approximate pronunciation (Spain):
- Mi – [mi] (like “mee”) – stress on mi (only one syllable).
- novio – [ˈno̞βjo] – stress on no: NO-vio.
- quiere – [ˈkjeɾe] – stress on quie: QUIE-re.
- estudiar – [estuˈðjar] – stress on diar: es-tu-DIAR.
- español – [espaˈɲol] – stress on ñol: es-pa-ÑOL.
- conmigo – [ko̞nˈmiɣo̞] – stress on mi: con-MI-go.
Full sentence:
Mi novio quiere estudiar español conmigo.
[mi ˈno̞βjo ˈkjeɾe estuˈðjar espaˈɲol ko̞nˈmiɣo̞]
Each word has only one stressed syllable, as shown in capitals.