Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): Quieren acabar la hipoteca pronto para no vivir siempre con esa preocupación. - They want to finish paying the mortgage soon so as not to always live with that worry.

Quieren acabar la hipoteca pronto para no vivir siempre con esa preocupación.

They want to finish paying the mortgage soon so as not to always live with that worry.

Breakdown of Quieren acabar la hipoteca pronto para no vivir siempre con esa preocupación.

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Questions & Answers about Quieren acabar la hipoteca pronto para no vivir siempre con esa preocupación.

In English we say “pay off the mortgage”. Is acabar la hipoteca a natural way to say that in Spanish?

Yes, it is natural, especially in Spain, but it’s a bit colloquial/elliptical.

Literally, acabar la hipoteca = to finish the mortgage. What is understood is:

acabar de pagar la hipoteca = to finish paying off the mortgage.

In everyday speech, people often drop de pagar because it’s obvious from context:

Queremos acabar la hipoteca pronto.
→ We want to pay off the mortgage soon.

So:

pagar la hipoteca = to pay the mortgage (e.g. a monthly payment).
acabar (de pagar) la hipoteca = to pay it off completely, to be done with it.

Why acabar la hipoteca and not pagar la hipoteca or terminar de pagar la hipoteca?

All are possible, but they focus on slightly different things:

pagar la hipoteca
Often refers to making payments in general:
Pagamos la hipoteca cada mes. – We pay the mortgage every month.
terminar de pagar la hipoteca / acabar de pagar la hipoteca
Explicitly: to finish paying off the mortgage completely.
acabar la hipoteca
Shorter, more colloquial way of saying acabar de pagar la hipoteca, especially in Spain. It implies finish paying it off.

So in your sentence, they don’t just want to pay the mortgage; they want to get it over with and be done with it permanently, hence acabar.

Is acabar always transitive here? How does it differ from things like acabar de + infinitivo or acabarse?

Here it’s used transitively: acabar la hipoteca = finish the mortgage.

Three common patterns:

acabar + direct object (transitive)
- Acabé el libro. – I finished the book.
- Quieren acabar la hipoteca. – They want to finish/pay off the mortgage.
acabar de + infinitivo
= to have just done something
- Acabo de llegar. – I’ve just arrived.
- Acabamos de firmar la hipoteca. – We’ve just signed the mortgage.
acabarse (pronominal/intransitive: to run out, to come to an end)
- Se acabó el dinero. – The money ran out.
- Se acabó la hipoteca. – Either the mortgage period is over or we’re finally done with the mortgage (context needed).

Your sentence is clearly case 1.

Why is there no subject pronoun before quieren? Shouldn’t it be ellos quieren or ellas quieren?

In Spanish, subject pronouns (yo, tú, él, ella, nosotros, vosotros, ellos, ellas) are usually omitted because the verb ending already shows the person and number.

Quieren already tells us it’s they/you-plural (3rd person plural).

You can add a pronoun for emphasis or clarity:

Ellos quieren acabar la hipoteca pronto. (as opposed to others who don’t)
Ustedes quieren acabar la hipoteca pronto. (speaking to “you all” formally in Spain or normally in Latin America)

But if context already makes clear who “they” are, native speakers simply say Quieren…

How do we know if quieren means “they want” or “you (plural) want”?

Grammatically, quieren can be:

ellos/ellas quieren = they want
ustedes quieren = you (all) want

Spanish relies on context (who is talking to whom, what was said before) to disambiguate. In writing, if it really matters and context is unclear, speakers may add the pronoun:

Ellos quieren acabar la hipoteca… – clearly “they”.
Ustedes quieren acabar la hipoteca… – clearly “you (plural)”.

Why is it present tense quieren and not future querrán?

Because the sentence is talking about a present desire, not a future one:

Quieren acabar la hipoteca pronto…
→ Right now, they want to pay off the mortgage soon.

If you said:

Querrán acabar la hipoteca pronto…

you’d usually be:

Guessing/speculating:
They probably want to pay off the mortgage soon…
Or talking about a future time when they will want that.

So the simple present quieren is the normal choice for a current, factual desire.

Why is it para no vivir and not para que no vivan?

Because the subject is the same in both parts of the sentence.

Pattern:

Same subject in main clause and purpose clause:
→ para + infinitive
- Quieren acabar la hipoteca pronto para no vivir siempre con esa preocupación.
  (They) want to pay it off in order not to live with that worry.
Different subject in main clause and purpose clause:
→ para que + subjunctive
- Quieren acabar la hipoteca pronto para que sus hijos no vivan siempre con esa preocupación.
  (They) want to pay it off so that their children don’t always live with that worry.

Here both verbs (quieren, vivir) refer to the same people, so para + infinitive is correct.

Why is no placed right before vivir (as in para no vivir) and not somewhere else?

In Spanish, no goes directly before the verb it negates.

para vivir = in order to live
para no vivir = in order not to live / so as not to live

If you said no para vivir, you would be negating the purpose, not the verb:

Lo hizo no para vivir tranquilo, sino para ganar dinero.
– He didn’t do it in order to live calmly, but to make money.

In your sentence, the thing being negated is living always with that worry, so the natural position is:

para no vivir siempre con esa preocupación

Why is it la hipoteca and not su hipoteca?

Spanish uses the definite article much more than English when the owner is obvious from context.

Quieren acabar la hipoteca pronto…
→ It’s understood this is their mortgage, the one they have been talking about.

You can say su hipoteca, and it’s correct, but it adds a bit of explicitness/emphasis on whose mortgage it is:

Quieren acabar su hipoteca pronto…
– They want to pay off their mortgage soon (contrast with, say, a company mortgage or someone else’s).

When there is only one relevant mortgage in the context, la hipoteca sounds very natural.

What’s the difference between pronto and temprano here? Could we say temprano instead of pronto?

No, temprano doesn’t fit here; pronto is the right choice.

pronto ≈ soon / quickly / early in relation to now
- Quieren acabar la hipoteca pronto.
  → They want to pay it off soon / as soon as possible.
temprano = early (usually clock time or “earlier than usual/expected” in a schedule)
- Mañana me levanto temprano. – I’m getting up early tomorrow.
- Terminamos el trabajo temprano. – We finished the work early (in the day).

You would not normally say acabar la hipoteca temprano; it sounds like “to finish the mortgage early in the morning”, which is odd.

Can we change the word order, for example Quieren acabar pronto la hipoteca instead of acabar la hipoteca pronto?

Yes. Some word order variation is possible and natural:

Quieren acabar la hipoteca pronto. (your original)
Quieren acabar pronto la hipoteca.

Both are normal. The difference is minimal; pronto can sound slightly more attached to either acabar (finish soon) or la hipoteca (the mortgage, soon), but in practice both mean the same.

Less natural, but still possible depending on emphasis:

Pronto quieren acabar la hipoteca… – Now pronto is emphasized (“Soon they want to pay off the mortgage…”), more stylistic.

The most neutral everyday versions are the first two.

What nuance does esa preocupación have compared with esta preocupación or just la preocupación?

Spanish demonstratives add a sense of distance, often psychological:

esta preocupación = this worry (very “close” to the speaker, often what I myself feel or am focusing on right now)
esa preocupación = that worry (a bit more distant; common for something both people know about but which the speaker may be slightly distancing from)
la preocupación = the worry (just referring to it generically, without pointing at “this” or “that”)

In a context like mortgages, esa preocupación:

Usually refers to a specific, known worry that both speakers have in mind (the constant anxiety of still owing money).
Slightly distances the speaker from it, as if pointing at “that thing over there” in the conversation.

All three could be grammatically correct; esa preocupación just feels like a very natural choice here.

Could we say para no tener siempre esa preocupación instead of para no vivir siempre con esa preocupación? Is there any difference?

Yes, you can, and it’s correct, but the nuance shifts slightly.

para no tener siempre esa preocupación
– so as not to always have that worry
Focuses on possessing the worry as a mental state.
para no vivir siempre con esa preocupación
– so as not to always live with that worry
Emphasizes the ongoing way of life: day in, day out, their life is accompanied by that worry.

Vivir con esa preocupación paints a stronger picture of a continuous, burdensome life condition, not just an occasional mental state.

Is acabar la hipoteca used in Latin America too, or is it mainly from Spain?

The construction acabar la hipoteca will generally be understood everywhere, but it sounds particularly natural in Spain, where people very often say:

acabar la hipoteca
acabar de pagar la hipoteca

In many Latin American countries, you’re more likely to hear:

terminar de pagar la hipoteca
pagar la hipoteca por completo
liquidar la hipoteca

So your sentence is perfectly fine Spanish, but it has a somewhat Peninsular (Spain) flavour because of that verb choice.