Breakdown of Mi hermano quiere vivir en la ciudad.
la ciudad
the city
el hermano
the brother
en
in / on / by (means of transport) / about (after pensar)
vivir
to live
mi
my
querer
to want; to love (a person)
Questions & Answers about Mi hermano quiere vivir en la ciudad.
Why is vivir not conjugated here?
In Spanish, when you use two verbs back-to-back like this, only the first verb is conjugated. The second verb stays in its infinitive (dictionary) form. So, quiere (he wants) is conjugated, but vivir (to live) is not.
The verb for to want is querer, so why does it change to quiere here?
Querer is a stem-changing verb. This means that for most subjects, the e in the middle of the word changes to ie. Since my brother is a he (third-person singular), querer changes to quiere.
Why is it la ciudad? I thought feminine words usually end in -a.
Can the word en mean things other than in?
Yes! En is a very common preposition that can mean in, on, or at depending on the context. Here, en la ciudad translates perfectly to in the city.
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