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We're heading to Canada in this edition of the Café Cortado: Rob in Calgary has a question about using me gustaría and quisiera.
Rob is, in fact, spot on when he compares these two constructions. Let's look at me gustaría. We've already learned me gusta which means "I like". It can be combined with nouns or verbs, for example me gusta España, "I like Spain", or me gusta aprender español, "I like learning Spanish" or "I like to learn Spanish", depending on the context. This construction using me gusta is the present tense: it's how you talk about what you like doing in general situations. Just like other verbs, me gusta can be used in different tenses. In English we say "I used to like..." or we sometimes hear children saying "I will like coffee when I'm older". Me gustaría is a different tense of me gusta. In fact it's what is called the conditional tense, or more precisely the conditional mood. It's translated as "I would like..." and it can be used in phrases such as "I would like Spanish grammar if it weren't so difficult". Of course that's just an example - Spanish grammar isn't really difficult!
This construction, me gustaría, meaning "I would like", can also be used in the situation of asking for something: "I would like a glass of wine", and it's almost as if you were going to continue by saying, "if it's not too much trouble".
Let's consider quisiera now. As Rob suggests, quisiera comes from the verb querer, meaning "to want", or in some cases, "to love". I'm not sure if you want to know which "tense" quisiera is - in fact it's the imperfect subjunctive but I don't think we'll go into that just now! So quisiera is another way to express that you'd like something, eg. quisiera un café, "I would like a coffee", although this literally means "I would want a coffee".
Now, is there a difference? Well, I've been doing some research to answer this question, and I think that my gut instincts are proving correct. Of course, the usage will probably vary slightly from country to country. Firstly, it's important to say that if you're in a bar and you say to the waiter or waitress, quisiera un café or me gustaría un café, there is no doubt whatsoever that the waiter or waitress will know that you'd like a coffee and they'll head off to fetch it. However, it could be said that if you use me gustaría then this is perhaps slightly more rhetorical: "I would like a coffee ... but I'm not necessarily going to have one". Whereas if you use quisiera un café, well it means that you want your coffee and you're not going to take "no" for an answer! Of course, if you want to avoid any possible misunderstanding you could just be blunt and say quiero un café, "I want a coffee"!
So, Rob. Thanks for your question. I hope this has helped!
That's all for this edition of the Café Cortado. Don't forget to visit the website at www.thecafecortado.com, and if you've not yet subscribed to our main Spanish language podcast, visit www.coffeebreakspanish.com. We'll be in touch with this week's contributor to deliver the three free guides for the Coffee Break Spanish series. If you'd like to earn your own free guides, or if you have a question about Spanish then listen to the numbers coming at the end of the show. Tune in again next time - ¡hasta pronto!
