Another common mistake made by English speaking students of Spanish is that of adding “a” in front of infinite verbs when it doesn’t belong there. This is because that is what happens in English. For example, in English you say “I want to eat” or “she needs to sleep”. But in Spanish, saying “quiero a comer” or “necesita a dormir” is incorrect.

The correct way is to leave out “to” or “a” as in:
“quiero comer” and “necesita dormir”.

Why? Remember that in English all verbs in the infinite are preceded by “to”, like “to eat” or “to sleep”.
In Spanish the infinite forms of the verbs don’t contain the additional word. It’s just “comer” or “dormir”.

Labels: Level: Intermediate, Spanish Grammar, Spanish Verbs

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