Word
Buenos días, quería un kilo de tomates.
Meaning
Good morning, I'd like a kilo of tomatoes.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Buenos días, quería un kilo de tomates.
de
of
un
a, an, some
querer
to want; to love (a person)
el tomate
the tomato
Questions & Answers about Buenos días, quería un kilo de tomates.
Why does the sentence use quería (I wanted) instead of quiero (I want) or me gustaría (I would like)?
Using the imperfect tense quería is the most natural and common way to make a polite request in a shop or market in Spain. Quiero can sound a bit too direct or demanding, while me gustaría translates perfectly to "I would like" but sounds slightly too formal or hypothetical for buying everyday groceries.
Could I use quisiera here instead of quería?
You can, and people will perfectly understand it as a polite request. However, quisiera is quite formal in Spain. For everyday shopping like buying a kilo of tomatoes, quería hits the ideal balance between being polite and natural.
Why is it un kilo de tomates and not just un kilo tomates?
Whenever you use a noun that measures quantity (like kilo, litro, or caja), you must use the preposition de to connect it to the item being measured. It works exactly like saying "a kilo of tomatoes" in English.
Is tomate the only word for tomato in Spanish?
In Spain, yes, tomate is the universal word for tomato. If you travel to or speak with people from Mexico, you might hear jitomate for the large red ones, but in Spain, they are all just tomates.