Why did I not have to conjugate this ?

Question

I refuse to let you walk back through that door - me niego a dejarte volver a caminar por esa puerta.

Uhm... what key change would it be if I were to form that instead into... vuelve a caminar... from volver a caminar ?

(it's a song)

Aaliyah fue una buenísima cantante. - QFour, Nov 26, 2012

Answer 1

It wouldn't make sense to turn volver into vuelve here, because it's following the infinitive dejar(te). The actual verb being impacted by the subject here is "negarse."

It's kind of like when you say something like "Necesito estudiar..." I need to study. You wouldn't say "Necesito estudio."

Hope that makes sense.

Thank you, so since dejar(te) tells me who (and is in the infinitive form) I don't need to conjugate volver to the person, gotcha... THANKS !! oh but I don't get where "negarse" came from ? - quespam, Jan 25, 2012

Answer 2

Obviously there are various ways. I might say something like "De ninguna manera te permitiré volver a pasar por esa puerta."

thank you for that alternative way, it's always good to remember that some parts of spanish are loose. Sometimes you forget and get into this RULES RULES thing, and forget that it IS a language - quespam, Jan 25, 2012

Answer 3

When a verb follows an infinitive, the verb will never be conjugated.

Creo que quespam's problema era que se confundió al leer "volver a" + infinitivo porque no sabía que no se conjuga el verbo despues de un verbo conjugado incluso si está seguido por "a" o lo que sea. Creo que ahora lo sabe. Una conjetura. - QFour, Nov 26, 2012

Answer 4

Hi again quespam.

"Negarse" is the infinitive form of the "Me niego" part of the lyric... so that's the person saying "I refuse." The construction looks weird because you're just starting out, and you're expecting to see a "yo," and you're not expecting to see a "me." It will make sense later, as you get into more advanced verb forms.

The "dejarte" part means to let you.

So... Me niego (I refuse)... a dejarte (to let you)... volver (return / go back to) caminar por esa puerta (walking through that door).

¡Buena suerte!

P.S. What's the song, by the way? :-) - tejanajo, Jan 26, 2012

Great explanation, TejanaJo! - iana01, Nov 26, 2012

Answer 5

Quespam:

I think of it this way.....

In English it wouldn't make sense to conjugate the second verb here, "I want to go to the store." The verb "to go" is the infinitive and not conjugated. If I did conjugate it to refer to myself it would read, "I want I go to the store."

So, it's the same in Spanish. "I want" = quiero / "to go" = ir

Hope that helps a bit!

Buena explicación. Supondré que quespam está de acuerdo contigo. Gracias. - QFour, Nov 26, 2012

Answer 6

Jajaja. Tu español ha mejorado mucho desde que publicaste ésto. Enhorabuena.