The verb invitar means to invite, and it’s usage is pretty straight-forward.
Quiero invitarte a mi casa
I want to invite you to my house
¿Hiciste una fiesta y no me invitaste?
You threw a party and didn’t invite me?
Te invito a festejar mi cumple
I invite you to celebrate my birthday
While we’re on the subject of birthdays, some of you may be confused about the word cumple. I won’t address that in this post, but you can read my post Estoy de cumple, and everything will be explained. By the way, that post is on my companion blog, My Spanish Notes.
Getting back to the subject at hand, let’s take a look at one more example.
Te invito a cenar
I’m inviting you to dinner
This is where things start to get a little tricky. You see, invitar also implies that when you invite someone somewhere, you’re paying.
Let’s try translating that sentence again.
Te invito a cenar
Let’s have dinner, I’m buying
Here are some more examples:
Te invito a un cafecito
Let me buy you a coffee
Vamos por una cerveza, yo te invito
Let’s go for a beer, I’m buying
You can invite people to more than just beer and coffee.
Now let’s look a couple of ways we can invite people out and not have to foot the bill.
One way is to avoid the word invitar altogether.
¿Voy por una cerveza, quieres acompañarme?
I’m going to get a beer, do you want to go with me?
Another way is to tell your friend they’re paying.
I’m inviting you out for some beers, but you’re paying.
That’s pretty much it for today, but I’ll leave you with one last piece of advice that’s very well known in the Spanish speaking world.
El que invita, paga
Whoever invites, pays
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¡Hasta la próxima!