English Original Sentence
I can’t even if I want to.
“When aunque means even if, the next verb in the sentence is conjugated in a tense of the Subjunctive Mood”.
I can’t even if I want to.
“When aunque means even if, the next verb in the sentence is conjugated in a tense of the Subjunctive Mood”.
I agree with the translation, but I think the reason is a VERY subtle change in casual/modern English. And a better translation would be “I can’t even though I want to”.
“Even if I want to” means that you do want to. This is a very casual/modern way of saying “Even though I want to”.
“Even if I wanted to” means that you currently don’t want to, but hypothetically you may at some point.
For an example of each:
“I’m on a diet. I can’t eat that cake even if I really want to right now.”
“I hate chocolate and I’m allergic to it. So I can’t eat that cake even if I wanted to.”
Thanks for the interesting explanation! As a non-native English speaker I try to stick with the rules I once learnt, and I find it a bit disturbing when native speakers seem to break them
But doesn’t the conflation of “even if/though” mean that in past tense “even if” becomes ambiguous: “I couldn’t eat that cake even if I wanted to” (No podía comer esa tarta aunque quería/quisiera"?
It’s very ambiguous. I think this is along the same lines as the modern use of “literally” for emphasis. E.g. “You literally can’t be serious” (I’m shocked that you are serious).
“Aunque quiera” is the correct answer, anyway “aunque quiero” doesn’t sound so wrong, even a native could say so.