Spanish question?
How to say, "I would not" in spanish. I looked at the dictionary and this is what I get, "yo no sería"
10 Answers
Technically, there is no definite translation for what you're asking. If you want to say that you would not do something, that you would not say something, or that you would not eat something, all three of those have different translations. When you typed this fragment into the dictionary, it gave you the translation for "I would not be." It did this because your sentence fragment does not have a verb in it, so the dictionary added one for you. So, what exactly would you like to say? You would not....what? If you can answer that question, then I'm sure you will be able to find many answers to your own question.
I don't know if this has been written, but I have a couple notes.
- I would not say that (English construction) Vs. No diría eso (Spanish conjugation)
- There is a conjugation that is specifically for (would etc.) in Spanish, meaning that you form it through the verb (meaning you need a verb to form your 'woulds' ..it's called the conditional tense)
- I wouldn't do it (English) Vs. No lo haría (español)
Would do - haría Would say - diría Would go - iría
etc.
"Would" is technically not in the Spanish language. If you want to say 'I wouldn't' ...you'll have to pick a verb to use. I wouldn't ''do it'' - No lo haría. Hacer (to do) in it's "would" form.
This situation can be confusing for English speakers who are starting to learn Spanish. The English conditional tense is actually a construction, not a conjugation. I would not + verb is the structure. The only change is the subject pronoun, I, you, he, they, etc.
It works differently in Spanish. The condicional is formed by altering the verb itself with a distinctive ending. This is done by adding "ía" to the infinitive form of the veb. For example, "I would not talk" is "no hablaría".
Because of this, to understand "would" you must specify both the verb and the person doing the action.
Hi pupsaini. In English….when we would or would not do something…that something is usually an action verb. I would not go (no iría… in Spanish) I would not sing ( no cantaría… in Spanish)
Basically…in this scenario...what we do in English..we do in Spanish. What I’m doing in Spanish…is utilizing the conditional tense of any Spanish verb. In English…when we say that we wouldn’t do something… we are basing our actions on the assumption of an if…Whether or not that if is made known to others . I would not go (if)________. I would not sing (if)_____. If is the cause of our refusal.
When you are expressing your desire of wanting something, That becomes a like. Most Spanish speakers will conjoin the verb gustar with a verb. But, in this scenario we are saying …I would like to go. Me gustaría ir. No me gustaría comer. I would not like to eat. " no me gusta comer" means: I do not like to eat.
Si tuviera alas volaría encima de las nubes. If I had wings(but I don’t) I would fly above the clouds. Good luck with your studies. Stay with the learn section of SpanishDict. It will eventually be explained to you. Viejito
"I would not"
Would + infinitive = es el condicional español
CONDICIONAL ESPAÑOL
infinitive + ía , ías, ía, íamos, iáis, ían
Exemple:
cantar
- yo cantar-ía
- tú cantar-ías
- él/ella cantar-ía
- nosotros/as cantar-íamos
- vosotros/as cantar-íais
- ellos/as cantarían
An example with a second conditional sentence:
If I won the lottery I would buy a house on Bahamas Islands
Si ganara/ganase a la lotería me compraría una casa en las Islas Bahamas
English culture use "would" to ask for something:
I'd like a cup of coffe
In French it's the same thing. They also use the conditional form:
Je voudrai un cafe
In Spanish we never use the conditional form in this case:
Wrong - Quería una taza de café (It's very very polite in our culture)
Right - Quiero una taza de café Better - Nos pone una taza de café
Wow, you guys have pretty much covered all the bases. This is good material for people who have the same old question of how to translate "would." Good answers. I'd only add one more side note...In English we sometimes use "would" to express the imperfect tense, such as "When I was a kid, we would always go swimming in the Summer." What the speaker means is that they "used to" always go swimming..., which would translate to "Cuando era un niño, siempre íbamos a la piscina." Just food for thought...
Actually "no quisiera" is not a conditional in Spanish. It is the imperfect subjunctive of "querer". If you want to use the conditional, it is "querría". If you want to say "I would not", it would be "no querría", or the equivalent of whatever verb you want to use. Again, the "would" is included in the meaning of the verb, and needs an object to have meaning.
Alright thanks everyone for the help.
Here is an interesting possibility that I got from the SpanishDict translator. I, of course, supplied a question. What's interesting to me is that the translator used "I would not", by itself, to create a meaningful translation.
- Would you want to eat with me? I would not.
- ¿Desea comer conmigo? No quisiera.
So, in this example "I would not" is translated all by itself, and gives a meaningful translation. I don't know if the translator was able to refer to the question in order to create the response.
Jleymon's correct. My guess is that you might mean "I would not want to" in which case "No quisiera" might work. If I'm wrong here, someone please correct me.
