Learn Spanish (Spain): Ella quiere dejar de comprar caprichos para ahorrar dinero. - She wants to stop buying treats to save money.

The verb dejar on its own usually means to leave or let. But when you want to express stopping an action, you must use the specific phrase dejar de followed by an infinitive verb. Together, dejar de comprar means to stop buying.

There are three verbs here (quiere, dejar, comprar). How does chaining them work?

Only the first verb in a sequence is conjugated. Querer becomes quiere to match Ella (She wants). The next verb must be in its infinitive form, so we use dejar (to stop). Because the phrase dejar de also requires an infinitive, the third verb stays as comprar (buying).

In English we say 'stop buying'. Why doesn't Spanish use an '-ing' word like comprando here?

English uses the '-ing' form after the word 'stop', but Spanish rules are different. In Spanish, you must use the infinitive form (comprar) after prepositions like de. You will never use the Spanish '-ing' equivalent after dejar de.

Why use para instead of por before ahorrar?