Questions & Answers about Quiero la mitad del pastel.
In Spanish, subject pronouns are often left out because the verb already shows who is doing the action.
- quiero = I want
- The -o ending tells you it is yo
So:
- Quiero la mitad del pastel. = I want half of the cake.
- Yo quiero la mitad del pastel. is also correct, but yo is usually only added for emphasis, contrast, or clarity.
- Yo quiero la mitad, no él. = I want half, not him.
Mitad is a feminine noun in Spanish, so it takes the feminine article la.
- la mitad = the half
- not el mitad
This is something you simply have to learn with the noun. Spanish nouns have grammatical gender, and it does not always match anything logical in English.
Other examples:
- la verdad = the truth
- la ciudad = the city
Even though mitad refers to a quantity, it is still just a normal noun grammatically.