So, I was trying to remember how to say “she wanted” in Spanish the other day. It sounds simple, right? But sometimes the simplest things trip you up when you’re switching languages, or just trying to get the tense right. My brain just kind of fumbled for a second.
My Initial Thoughts
My first instinct was, okay, “to want” is “querer.” And “she” is “ella.” So, “ella quiere” is “she wants,” present tense. But I specifically needed the past tense. She wanted something. It already happened.
This is where Spanish verbs can get a bit tricky, with their different past tenses. You’ve got the preterite for completed actions, and the imperfect for ongoing things in the past or habitual actions. It’s always a bit of a mental checklist for me.
Figuring it Out
I started running through the conjugations in my head. For “querer” in the past, I had to think which past tense made sense for what I was trying to say.
- If it was a specific, completed action, like “She wanted that specific book yesterday,” then I knew I needed the preterite.
- If it was more like “She used to want to be a doctor when she was a kid,” or “She was wanting a coffee” (as in, a state of wanting in the past), then the imperfect tense would be the go-to.
So, I dug a bit deeper into my memory banks for those “ella” forms.
For the preterite tense, that sharp, completed action, it clicked: ella quiso. That’s it. “She wanted it, and that was that.” Like, “ella quiso un helado” (she wanted an ice cream – and perhaps got it, or the wanting was a distinct event).
Then for the imperfect tense, the one that’s a bit more descriptive of a past state or a repeated action, it’s ella quería. This is super common too. “Ella quería ir al cine” (She wanted to go to the movies – maybe she did, maybe she didn’t, but the wanting was a state or an intention over a period).
The Outcome
So, there it was. “She wanted” in Spanish isn’t just one phrase. It usually boils down to:
- Ella quiso (if it was a specific, one-time, completed wanting).
- Ella quería (if it was an ongoing desire in the past, a habitual wanting, or setting the scene).
Most of the time, if I’m just stating a simple past fact that she wanted something specific at a point in time, ella quiso feels right. But if I’m describing a situation or a continuous desire, ella quería is the one. It’s all about the context, really. Just one of those things you gotta practice until it becomes second nature. It took me a minute to sort it out in my head that day, but hey, that’s how we learn, right? By actually trying to use the language and working through these little puzzles.
