Breakdown of Ellas quieren reservar una mesa en el restaurante para el sábado.
Questions & Answers about Ellas quieren reservar una mesa en el restaurante para el sábado.
Yes, you often can leave it out.
Spanish usually drops subject pronouns when the verb already makes the subject clear. So:
- Ellas quieren reservar una mesa...
- Quieren reservar una mesa...
Both can mean They want to book a table...
Including ellas can be useful when:
- you want to emphasize that it is they
- you want to make it clear you mean a group of women
- you are contrasting them with someone else
So in many normal situations, Quieren reservar una mesa en el restaurante para el sábado would sound perfectly natural.
Ellas means they, referring to an all-female group.
Compare:
- ellas = they (female group)
- ellos = they (male group, or a mixed group)
So if the group includes even one male, Spanish normally uses ellos.
Quieren is the third person plural form of the verb querer (to want).
Here is the present tense of querer:
- yo quiero = I want
- tú quieres = you want
- él / ella / usted quiere = he / she / you want
- nosotros / nosotras queremos = we want
- vosotros / vosotras queréis = you all want
- ellos / ellas / ustedes quieren = they / you all want
Because the subject is ellas, the verb has to be quieren.
Because after a conjugated verb like querer, the next verb usually stays in the infinitive.
So:
- quieren reservar = they want to book
- quiero comer = I want to eat
- vamos a salir = we are going to go out
In English, we often use to + verb. In Spanish, after querer, you just use the infinitive directly:
- quieren reservar not
- quieren reservan
It can mean both, depending on context.
In this sentence, reservar una mesa is the natural way to say:
- to reserve a table
- to book a table
In everyday English, book a table is often more common. In Spanish, reservar una mesa is very standard.
You may also hear:
- hacer una reserva = to make a reservation
For example:
- Quieren hacer una reserva para el sábado.
That is also correct.
Because Spanish usually needs an article here.
- una mesa = a table
- la mesa = the table
In English, we also normally say book a table, not just book table. Spanish works similarly in this case.
So:
- reservar una mesa = to book a table
Without the article, reservar mesa, it would sound incomplete or unnatural in standard Spanish.
Because en el restaurante means in / at the restaurant, which describes the location of the table.
- una mesa en el restaurante = a table at/in the restaurant
If you said al restaurante, that would suggest movement to the restaurant, which is not the idea here.
Compare:
- Quieren reservar una mesa en el restaurante. = They want to book a table at the restaurant.
- Van al restaurante. = They are going to the restaurant.
So here, en is about location, not direction.
Here, para el sábado means for Saturday.
It tells you for which day they want the reservation.
So:
- reservar una mesa para el sábado = to book a table for Saturday
This is very natural Spanish when talking about reservations, appointments, plans, and deadlines.
In Spanish, days of the week often use the definite article:
- el lunes
- el martes
- el sábado
So para el sábado literally looks like for the Saturday, but in natural English we translate it as for Saturday.
This is normal Spanish grammar.
Examples:
- Trabajo el lunes. = I work on Monday.
- La reserva es para el sábado. = The reservation is for Saturday.
In this context, the most natural meaning is for Saturday.
When talking about reservations, Spanish often uses para to mean the intended date or time:
- una mesa para el sábado
- una cita para mañana
- la reunión es para las cinco
In English, depending on the sentence, you might translate it as:
- for Saturday
- on Saturday
But here for Saturday is the closest match.
Yes. Spanish word order is flexible, though some versions sound more natural than others.
The original:
- Ellas quieren reservar una mesa en el restaurante para el sábado.
Other possible orders:
- Ellas quieren reservar una mesa para el sábado en el restaurante.
- Para el sábado, ellas quieren reservar una mesa en el restaurante.
These are still understandable, but the original order sounds very natural and neutral.
A good general point: Spanish can move parts of the sentence around more easily than English, often for emphasis or style.
Yes, absolutely.
Both are correct, but they focus slightly differently:
- quieren reservar una mesa = they want to book a table
- quieren hacer una reserva = they want to make a reservation
If you want to keep the idea of a table specifically, you could say:
- Quieren hacer una reserva para una mesa el sábado.
But reservar una mesa is simpler and very common.
It is specifically about a restaurant reservation because of una mesa en el restaurante.
- mesa = table
- restaurante = restaurant
So the sentence clearly means they want to reserve a table at a restaurant.
If it were a hotel, ticket, or room, Spanish would use different nouns:
- reservar una habitación = book a room
- reservar entradas = book tickets
You would normally use ellos instead of ellas:
- Ellos quieren reservar una mesa en el restaurante para el sábado.
That can mean:
- a group of men
- a mixed group of males and females
So:
- ellas = all female group
- ellos = male group or mixed group
Literally, it means want to book.
But depending on context, English might soften it to would like to book, especially in polite situations.
For example:
- Quieren reservar una mesa... = They want to book a table...
- In a real-life customer service context, English might naturally say: They’d like to book a table...
So the Spanish is straightforward, but the best English translation can vary with tone.
In standard Spain Spanish, quieren is pronounced roughly like KYEH-ren.
A few helpful points:
- quie- sounds like kye
- the r in quieren is a light Spanish r, not a strong English r
- the stress is on the first syllable: QUIE-ren
Also:
- qu before i or e sounds like k
- the u is silent in que and qui
So quieren is not pronounced like koo-ee-eren, but more like KYE-ren.