Not wanting to
I don't want to fix the lamp.
Left column: the order of the concepts, as chips — the slots you fill (who, action, thing, when) and the fixed words the language adds (a modal, a negator, a question marker). Click a slot, here or in the bar above, to choose what goes in it. Right column: the sentence those concepts make, the other orders the language allows, and the other ways to say it — each with what it changes. The rows are the languages switched on at the top of the page.
Try:
| Language | The order of the concepts | The sentence, other orders, other ways to say it |
|---|---|---|
| EnglishEnglish | don't notwant to modal English cannot negate a plain verb directly: it needs 'do' to carry the 'not', and 'do' takes the -s (doesn't), so 'want' goes back to bare. Don't = do + not. | I don't want to fix the lamp tomorrow. |
| FrançaisFrench | ne notveux modalpas not Negation is a pair, ne … pas, wrapped round the conjugated verb — the modal, not the infinitive. Spoken French drops the ne and keeps the pas. Before a vowel ne becomes n’. | demain Après-demain = the day after tomorrow. Je ne veux pas réparer la lampe demain. or: Je veux pas réparer la lampe demain. — in speech, where the ne is nearly always dropped Other ways to say it Je n’ai pas envie de réparer la lampe demain. casual “I don't have desire of” je n’ai pas envie de — 'I don't feel like it'. A mood, not a refusal: much less final than je ne veux pas. |
| EspañolSpanish | no notquiero modal One word, no, straight in front of the conjugated verb. Nothing else moves, and there is no second half as in French ne … pas. | mañana Also 'morning' (la mañana): mañana por la mañana = tomorrow morning. Pasado mañana = the day after tomorrow. No quiero arreglar la lámpara mañana. Other ways to say it No tengo ganas de arreglar la lámpara mañana. casual “I don't have desires of” no tengo ganas de — 'I don't feel like it'. A mood, not a refusal: much less final than no quiero. |
Hover a word to see which concept it fills. The verb is always in its dictionary form: every pattern here is built on a modal, which carries the person and the tense, so any verb stays grammatical in every language. Where the modal is an ending (Korean, Japanese, Hindi's 'can'), the stem is computed. What this cannot show is agreement beyond the modal — adjectives, plural objects — which the grammar chapters cover.
For the same idea said at three levels of politeness, see Compare.