No quiero ese; prefiero el primero.

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Breakdown of No quiero ese; prefiero el primero.

• preferir: to prefer
• ;: semicolon
• no querer: to not want

Questions & Answers about No quiero ese; prefiero el primero.

Why is ese used here instead of este or aquel?

Spanish demonstratives show distance:

• este = this one, near the speaker
• ese = that one, near the listener or a bit farther away
• aquel = that one over there, farther away from both

So No quiero ese means I don’t want that one. It refers to something already understood from context.

Why is there no noun after ese?

Because ese is being used as a pronoun, meaning that one.

Compare:

• No quiero ese libro = I don’t want that book.
• No quiero ese = I don’t want that one.

The noun is omitted because it is already clear from the situation.

Why does the sentence say el primero and not just primero?

Here, primero is also being used like a noun phrase: the first one. In Spanish, ordinal numbers often need the definite article when they stand in for a noun.

• Prefiero el primero = I prefer the first one.

If you said only Prefiero primero, it would usually sound like I prefer first or I’d rather do something first, which is a different meaning.