Learn Spanish (Spain): Necesito un limón para la lechuga.

Necesito un limón para la lechuga.

I need a lemon for the lettuce.

Breakdown of Necesito un limón para la lechuga.

para

for / in order to (+ infinitive) / by (a deadline)

Questions & Answers about Necesito un limón para la lechuga.

Why is there no word for "I" before necesito?

In Spanish, the ending of the verb tells you who is doing the action. Because necesito ends in -o, it already means "I need." You can say yo necesito, but native speakers usually drop the yo (I).

Why does limón have an accent mark on the "o"?

The accent mark tells you which part of the word to stress when speaking. Without it, the normal rules of Spanish would make you stress the first syllable, so the accent is added to show that you must stress the final part: li-MON.

Why use para instead of por to say "for"?

Both por and para translate to "for", which can be tricky! In this sentence, we use para because it shows purpose or destination. The lemon is intended for a specific use: going on the lettuce.

Why do we use un for the lemon but la for the lettuce?

Un means "a" or "an", so un limón means you just need "a lemon" (any lemon will do). La means "the", so la lechuga refers to a specific lettuce or salad that you are already preparing.