Quiero la mitad del pastel.

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Breakdown of Quiero la mitad del pastel.

• querer: to want
• del: of the
• el pastel: the cake

Questions & Answers about Quiero la mitad del pastel.

Why is it quiero and not yo quiero?

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.

For example:

• Yo quiero la mitad, no él. = I want half, not him.

Why is it la mitad? Why is mitad feminine?

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.

Why is there la before mitad?