Quiero a decir algo. "I want to try..."

Question

I just had this big question and in the course of explaining it I found my answer! Nice! Anyways another question.

"I want to try paella next time we visit a spanish resturant"

Quiero a intentar paella proximo tiempo cuando salimos a un restaurante hispano.

es correcto?

I know spanish is very literal. Would saying "I want to eat paella next time..." be more natural?

Answer 1

Don't take it bad, but translating word by word you'll never learn how to speak proper Spanish. You need more native input (at least sentences with the proper words used in context) before you attempt pointless word by word translations. "Intentar" means to try, yes, but in the sense of to attempt. You don't attempt a pizza, you taste (or try it). In Spanish you don't "intentas" a pizza, you "pruebas" it. Of course you can try a pizza or try to speak, but those sentences mean "to taste a pizza" and "to attempt to speak" respectively. You can do something similar with "probar" (probar una pizza, probar a hablar), but not with "intentar", which is a verb that has to do with "intentions" only.

The verb "to try" has at least 17 different meanings (including the two I exemplified above), and for all you know, you might need to use a different verb in Spanish for each of those meaning, or even more than one per meaning, depending on how other factors. Using a single verb in Spanish as a do-it-all counterpart for an English verb with so many meanings is a perfect way to win the bad translation lottery.

No offense taken. You are abosolutely correct. I knew intentar was going to be wrong. I try to think literally "what am I trying to say?" because often we don't say what we mean. even then its a shot in the dark sometimes! - rtuttle1, Sep 8, 2010

Answer 2

Quiero probar La Paella la próxima vez que ............

Intentar cannot be used with this kind of action.

Answer 3

quiero probar paella....

probar in the sense to taste

Answer 4

Also, you don't use "a" after "quiero" as after it is infinitive which the word like "probar" is an infinitive that can be literally translated in English "to taste." If you use "a" it would be I want to to taste which means nothing in Spanish.

Answer 5

Historically "probar" is related to the the English "proof/probate/prove (etc.). One sense, at least, survives in the expression "the proof is in the pudding" (i.e. you need to taste it to know, for sure, that it is good).