Breakdown of Necesito un lápiz para escribir la carta.
la carta
the letter
un
a, an (masculine)
necesitar
to need
escribir
to write
para
for
el lápiz
pencil
Questions & Answers about Necesito un lápiz para escribir la carta.
How would I change this sentence to say 'I need THIS pencil to write THIS letter'?
You would use the demonstrative adjectives from this lesson! Because lápiz is a masculine word, you use este, and because carta is feminine, you use esta. The sentence becomes: Necesito este lápiz para escribir esta carta.
Why is escribir not conjugated here?
In Spanish, when a verb immediately follows a preposition like para (which means 'in order to' here), it stays in its full dictionary form, called the infinitive. So 'in order to write' is simply para escribir.
Why do we use para instead of por to mean 'to'?
A great rule to remember is that para is used for goals or purposes. When you can replace the English word 'to' with 'in order to', you almost always need para in Spanish. Here, you need a pencil in order to write the letter.
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