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What's the difference in connotation between these three phrases? Are they all correct? I am trying to say I want to talk to you.

Quiero hablarte.

Quiero hablar contigo.

Quiero hablar con tú.

4 Answers 4

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The difference in the three phrases:

1.) The first is more direct. In English, the translation is of course, `I want to speak to you

2.) The second is a bit personal. It suggests that you have a discreet reason to be talking to this person. It is the equivalent of I want to speak with you

3.) The third is not right, nor will it ever be. Tú is a pronoun. In English, without an context. the word you is pretty ambiguous and would be difficult to explain.

You grind the salt like this - passive
I see you - direct object
I made you a cake - indirect object

I made this cake for you

This sentence has a preposition, and, in Spanish, is the object of a preposition. This isn't to say that should follow every preposition.

There are exceptions of prepositions that exemplify the use of mí/tí.

  • A tí/mí
  • Con tí/mí
  • Sin tí/mí
  • Para tí/mí
  • De tí/mí
  • Sobre tí/mí
  • En tí/mí

http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/courses/pronouns.htm

Con tí is pretty much never used, but it is 100% more correct than Con tú

Contigo is some kind of bastardized way of saying Con tí. I do not know exactly why they even added -go to the end.

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The first two options are correct:

Quiero Hablarte

Quiero Hablar contigo

The third one is incorrect.

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"Hablar con tú" is incorrect. Both Quiero hablarte and Quiero hablar contigo are correct, but there is a difference, due to the use of "te". You could use Quiero hablar contigo as it is, but you won't hear just Quiero hablarte, you'll hear as

Quiero hablarte de algo

Since te is a pronominal particle that you are adding to a pronominal verb, and thus it will need a direct object.

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"Quiero hablarte" is all good, it translates to I wanna speak to/with you. "Quiero hablar contigo" is exactly the same as above but maybe you can say it's in a more expanded way?

"Quiero hablar con tú" it's plain wrong, "contigo" is the correct one in this scenario.

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