Morning! 😃 ☕️
This phrase only has three words, so there's nothing left to remove word by word, Day 3 already used them up.
Instead, today you get one letter per word.
The rest is on you.
In today's email…
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📱 Day 4: Just the first letters remain
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🌟 Why "querer" secretly means two different things
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🏃♂️ The grammar pattern hiding inside this phrase
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Let's finish the week where it matters most: the grammar pattern underneath this phrase, and why it's built the way it's built.
"Querer es poder" uses two infinitives, the base, un-conjugated form of each verb, placed on either side of "es."
This is a classic Spanish construction: [infinitive] + es + [infinitive]. You'll see the same shape in other common sayings: "Ver es creer" (seeing is believing), "Vivir es aprender" (living is learning).
Once you spot the pattern, you start noticing it everywhere, and you can build your own versions of it on the spot.
Native speakers use this construction because it turns an action into a concept. "Querer" as a conjugated verb ("yo quiero," "tú quieres") is just you wanting something.
"Querer" as an infinitive, sitting next to "es," turns wanting itself into a category, a thing that has properties, like being equal to ability.
That's a small grammar move with a big philosophical result, and it's why this three-word phrase carries the weight of a full argument.
This is also why native speakers rarely think about grammar when they say this line.
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