Learn Spanish (Latin America): Ellos quieren enseñar en la universidad.

Ellos quieren enseñar en la universidad.

They want to teach at the university.

Breakdown of Ellos quieren enseñar en la universidad.

Questions & Answers about Ellos quieren enseñar en la universidad.

Why is enseñar not conjugated here?

In Spanish, when you want to say you "want to do" something, you conjugate the verb querer (to want) and leave the second verb in its base form, or infinitive. Here, quieren tells us who wants (they want), and enseñar stays in its infinitive form to mean "to teach".

Why is it quieren instead of queren?

The verb querer has a stem change. For most forms (like I, you, he, she, and they), the e in the middle changes to ie. So, for ellos, it becomes quieren. Forms like "we" don't have this change and stay regular, like queremos.

Doesn't en mean "in"? Why does the translation say "at the university"?

The Spanish preposition en is very versatile and can mean "in", "on", or "at" depending on the context. When talking about being present at a location or institution, like en la universidad, it translates naturally to "at the university" in English.

Is universidad always a feminine word?