Breakdown of Quiero que cambies esa actitud.
esa
that (feminine)
querer
to want
que
that / than
cambiar
to change
la actitud
the attitude
Questions & Answers about Quiero que cambies esa actitud.
Why do we use cambies instead of cambias?
Because the sentence starts with Quiero que (I want that). When you express a desire or expectation for someone else to do something, Spanish requires a verb form called the subjunctive. For cambiar (an -ar verb), the tú (you) form in the present subjunctive swaps the usual -as ending for -es, making it cambies.
Why is there a que here when the English translation is "I want you to change"?
What would it mean if I just said Quiero cambiar esa actitud?
That would mean "I want to change that attitude" (meaning you want to change your own attitude). When the person wanting the action and the person doing the action are the same, you just use the infinitive verb (cambiar) without que. To show that you want someone else to do it, you must use que and conjugate the second verb.
Why is it esa and not ese?
Esa (that) is the feminine singular form, and it must match the noun actitud. As a helpful rule of thumb, most Spanish words that end in -ud, like la actitud (the attitude) or la salud (the health), are feminine.
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