Breakdown of Quiero volver a estudiar en la biblioteca con mis amigos.
Questions & Answers about Quiero volver a estudiar en la biblioteca con mis amigos.
In Spanish, when volver means “to do something again / to go back to doing something”, it is normally followed by the preposition a + infinitive:
- volver a estudiar – to study again / to go back to studying
- volver a trabajar – to work again / to go back to working
Without a (volver estudiar), it sounds incorrect to native speakers. The structure is volver + a + infinitive.
It can express both ideas, depending on context:
- Repetition of an activity:
- Quiero volver a estudiar = I want to study again / I want to start studying again.
- Return to a previous situation or place plus the activity:
- In this sentence, with en la biblioteca, it also suggests going back to the habit of studying in the library, not necessarily physically “going back” at that moment.
So here it’s best understood as: “I want to go back to studying in the library with my friends” or “I want to study in the library with my friends again.”
In Spanish, when one verb directly follows another and both share the same subject, the second verb is usually in the infinitive:
- Quiero estudiar – I want to study
- Empiezo a estudiar – I start to study
- Puedo estudiar – I can study
Here, quiero is conjugated (for yo) and estudiar stays in the infinitive because the subject (yo) is the same for both verbs. You do not say quiero estudio in this context.
Yes, you can say it, and it is natural.
Quiero volver a estudiar en la biblioteca…
Slight emphasis on going back to a previous habit or situation (studying in the library again, after having stopped).Quiero estudiar otra vez en la biblioteca…
Emphasises repetition: doing the action one more time, again.
In many contexts they are almost interchangeable. If you are talking about resuming a habit, volver a estudiar usually sounds a bit more natural. If it is just one more time, otra vez fits very well.
- en la biblioteca = in / at the library (location where the action happens)
- Estudio en la biblioteca. – I study in the library.
- a la biblioteca = to the library (movement towards that place)
- Voy a la biblioteca. – I go to the library.
In your sentence the focus is where you study, not where you go, so Spanish uses en la biblioteca.
In Spanish, places like la biblioteca, el supermercado, el colegio normally take the definite article when you talk about being in that type of place in a general or habitual way:
- Trabajo en la biblioteca. – I work at the library.
- Estudia en el colegio. – He/she studies at school.
En biblioteca sounds incomplete or wrong in this context. You might drop the article in some fixed expressions (for example in job ads: se busca dependiente en farmacia), but in everyday speech, for this kind of sentence, you need la: en la biblioteca.
Yes, that is also correct and natural.
- …en la biblioteca con mis amigos
- …con mis amigos en la biblioteca
Both orders are fine. The difference in emphasis is very small and usually not important. Spanish word order is fairly flexible with these kinds of complements.
- mis amigos = my friends (your own friends)
- los amigos = the friends (some specific friends already known from context, but not clearly belonging to “me”)
In English you must say my friends here, not the friends, and Spanish works the same way in this case. You are talking about your friends, so mis amigos is the natural choice.
You would change amigos to the feminine plural amigas:
- Quiero volver a estudiar en la biblioteca con mis amigas.
Grammar points:
- amigo (masc. singular) → amigos (masc. plural / mixed group)
- amiga (fem. singular) → amigas (fem. plural)
If the group is mixed, or you do not want to specify, amigos is the standard form.
You can say Yo quiero volver a estudiar…, and it is grammatically correct.
However, in Spanish the subject pronoun (yo, tú, él…) is often omitted because the verb ending already shows who the subject is:
- quiero clearly indicates yo (I).
We normally include yo only for emphasis or contrast, for example:
- Yo quiero volver a estudiar, pero ellos no.
I want to go back to studying, but they do not.
In your neutral sentence, Quiero volver a estudiar… is more natural than Yo quiero….
The sentence:
Quiero volver a estudiar en la biblioteca con mis amigos.
is perfectly correct and natural in both Spain and Latin America.
- The vocabulary (querer, volver, estudiar, biblioteca, amigos) is standard.
- The grammar and word order are also completely standard.
There is no regional difference here; a speaker from Spain, Mexico, Argentina, etc. would all understand and accept this sentence.
Both verbs are irregular in the present tense.
Querer (to want) – present indicative:
- yo quiero
- tú quieres
- él / ella / usted quiere
- nosotros / nosotras queremos
- vosotros / vosotras queréis
- ellos / ellas / ustedes quieren
Volver (to return; to do again with volver a + infinitive) – present indicative:
- yo vuelvo
- tú vuelves
- él / ella / usted vuelve
- nosotros / nosotras volvemos
- vosotros / vosotras volvéis
- ellos / ellas / ustedes vuelven
Example patterns:
- Quiero volver a estudiar. – I want to start studying again.
- Queremos volver a estudiar. – We want to start studying again.
- Ellos quieren volver a estudiar. – They want to start studying again.