The sentences that we have worked with up to now are all of one particular type. They are statements of fact. They describe reality. When we say, "Mary is studying", we are simply describing the fact that she is doing that action. Now we want to take a look at another kind of sentence.

• I want to study in the library.
• John needs to study in the library.

Notice that in these sentences we are not saying that the person is actually doing the action of studying. We are focusing on the desire, feeling, emotion. We are not speaking about what someone is actually doing, but rather about what the feeling is about the desired action, which hasn't actually happened but rather exists only in the mind or the imagination of the person who is speaking. You should remember that sentences of this kind use the "infinitive", the form of the verb which uses "to" in English, and in Spanish ends with the letter "r". We have seen that Spanish uses the same word pattern in these cases as English.

Now we are going to go one step further with this idea of sentences which express feelings about doing things. Notice that in the sentences we have seen so far, in which we use the infinitive, the person (or people) wants to do something himself (or themselves). Let's take a look at another situation. Let's use the verb "hope", which in Spanish is "espera" (notice that it is a verb of the "A" category).

• The teacher hopes that John studies in the library.

Notice that it is a fact that the teacher "hopes", but it is not a fact that "John studies". The emphasis is on the feeling or desire of the teacher, not on the actual fact of what John is doing. At this point the studying is only something which the teacher is thinking about. The action that he hopes for is only the subject of his thoughts. He is imagining the possibility of John studying, not describing it as a fact. Let's see how we would do this in Spanish.

• El profesor espera que Juan estudi-.

Notice that I left the last letter out in "study" and used a dash (-). This is because we are going to have to make a change. We have learned that there are two patterns for verbs in Spanish, the "A" pattern and the "E" pattern. When we describe a fact, "A" verbs have the letter "a" in the middle and "E" verbs have the letter "e" in the middle. When we have a sentence that focuses on someone's feeling about what someone else is doing, we have to switch the "a" to "e", or in the case of an "E" verb, we switch the "e" to "a". We could see this in the form of a chart.

"A" verbs fact feeling
            A    E 

"E" verbs fact feeling
            E    A 

Notice that we are just flip-flopping the vowel in the middle of the verb. In the example above, the correct answer would be the following.

• El profesor quiere que Juan estudie.

Let's take a look at some practice examples.

Now let's look at another sentence pattern in English in which we focus on feelings where someone cares about what someone else does.

• The teacher wants the boys to study.

Here we have a different word pattern. Let's compare this with the pattern we used with the verb "hope".

• The teacher hopes that the boys study.

Notice that when we use "hope" to express the feeling, we use the pattern with the word "that" (person "X" hopes that person "Y" does something). However, when we use "want" to express the feeling, we use the "to" pattern (person "X" wants person "Y" to do something, in English. How do we decide which pattern to follow in English? It's like we have two "boxes" of verbs in our brains (which we have learned since we were children). For example, if we used the verb "beg" in English we would say, "The teacher begs the students to study", while if we use "pray", we would say, "The teacher prays that the boys study". We are so used to these patterns that we associate one pattern with one "box" of verbs and the other pattern with the other "box" of verbs.

In Spanish, the situation is different. We do use the "R" form pattern in Spanish, but it has nothing to do with the particular verb that is used. We use this pattern in Spanish when someone wants to do something himself/herself. When we have a situation where one person cares about what another does, we use the pattern with "that" (just like the pattern we use with "hope" in English), no matter what the particular verb is. This means that for the sentence, "The teacher wants the boys to study", we can not translate word-for-word. We have to reorganize the word pattern and change it to the one which we would use with "hope".

Examples:

• The teacher hopes that the boys study.
• The teacher wants that the boys study.

Notice that in this case, in Spanish, we would not use the infinitive "to study" ("estudiar"). We would have the following pattern.

• El profesor quiere que los muchachos estudien.

Let's practice making "feeling" sentence in which someone cares about what someone else does, using the verb "want".

In the case of "E" verbs, we would follow the same practice. In this case, the "e" would change to "a" in the sentence pattern we use to say that someone cares about what someone else is doing. Let's see how this works with some sentences in which we use the verb "to read" ("leer").

Remember that "I" verbs actually follow the "E" verb pattern. The only places where "I" verbs are different from "E" verbs is in two forms, the "-imos" form and the "-ir" form. In the case of feeling sentences, "I" verbs will work exactly like "E" verbs. Let's practice sentences in which we use the verb "to write" ("escribir").

Let's take a look at some other "A" category verbs. We'll use "to buy the tickets" ("comprar los boletos") and "to carry the suitcases" ("llevar las maletas").

We need to remember that often the verb is not a single word. It is a phrase. In the sentences that we have used, the phrase is made up of one verb which must match the subject, and another verb in the "R" form. In this case, only the verb that matches will change from "a" to "e" or vice versa in feeling sentences. The second verb in the phrase which is in the "R" form will not change. The infinitive never changes the vowel category. Look at the following sentences in which we use the verb "can" ("puede") along with an infinitive ("R" form). We'll use the verb "to help" ("ayudar").

Some verbs are completely irregular and we must memorize them. Here is a chart with the forms of "go" that you need to know at this time.

"to go", ("IR")

           voy    vamos           vaya    vayamos
           vas    van             vayas   vayan
           va                     vaya

Let's practice sentences in which we use the verb "go".

Now let's see how this would word in a verb phrase with "can".