Querer (to Want) in Portuguese

In Brief

Querer means “to want.” In the present tense it is irregular: quero, queres, quer, queremos, quereis, querem. Put a noun after it for the thing someone wants (Quero um café) or an infinitive—the basic “to” form of a verb—after it for an action (Quero sair).

Overview

Querer is one of the most useful Portuguese verbs for ordering food, making plans, expressing wishes, and asking what another person would like. It appears early at A1 because a small set of forms lets you handle many everyday situations: Queres água? (“Do you want water?”), Queremos visitar o Porto (“We want to visit Porto”), and O que quer? (“What do you want?” or, depending on context, “What would you like?”).

Although querer ends in -er, it does not follow the regular pattern completely. Its first-person singular form is quero, not an expected regular form based simply on removing -er. The safest approach is to learn the six present-tense forms as a set.

English normally requires an explicit subject such as “I” or “they.” Portuguese often leaves the subject pronoun out because the verb ending identifies the person: Eu quero descansar and Quero descansar both mean “I want to rest.” The shorter version is usually natural when the subject is already clear.

How It Works

Present-tense forms

The subject is the person or thing doing or experiencing the action. Match that subject to the correct form of querer.

Person	Portuguese	Form	Basic meaning
1st person singular	eu	quero	I want
2nd person singular	tu	queres	you want (informal singular)
3rd person singular	ele / ela	quer	he / she wants
Formal or common singular “you”	você / o senhor / a senhora	quer	you want
1st person plural	nós	queremos	we want
2nd person plural	vós	quereis	you want (plural; limited use)
3rd person plural	eles / elas	querem	they want
Common plural “you”	vocês	querem	you all want

The forms queremos and quereis resemble regular -er endings. The others must be remembered carefully, especially the contrast between quer and querem.

In modern everyday Portuguese, vós and quereis are uncommon in most places. Vocês querem is the normal plural form in Brazil and in much everyday European Portuguese. You may still meet vós in some northern Portuguese varieties, religious language, older writing, or deliberately formal styles.

Querer + a noun

A noun is a word for a person, place, thing, or idea. Use querer + noun phrase when someone wants a thing:

• Quero um café. — “I want a coffee.”
• Ela quer uma mesa junto à janela. — “She wants a table by the window.”
• Queremos mais tempo. — “We want more time.”

Portuguese does not insert a preposition between querer and the wanted thing. Say quero água, not quero de água.

Querer + infinitive

An infinitive is the basic, unconjugated verb form, such as ir (“to go”), comer (“to eat”), or dormir (“to sleep”). When the same person wants and performs the action, use:

conjugated querer + infinitive

• Quero aprender português. — “I want to learn Portuguese.”
• Queres vir connosco? — “Do you want to come with us?”
• Eles querem comprar uma casa. — “They want to buy a house.”

Unlike English, Portuguese does not use a word equivalent to English “to” before this second verb. Quero sair is literally structured as “I-want leave,” not quero a sair or quero para sair.

Only querer changes for the subject. The following verb remains in the infinitive: queremos ir, not queremos vamos.

Negatives

Put não directly before the conjugated verb:

• Não quero sobremesa. — “I don’t want dessert.”
• Ela não quer esperar. — “She doesn’t want to wait.”
• Não queremos sair hoje. — “We don’t want to go out today.”

Questions and invitations

Portuguese can turn a statement into a yes/no question through intonation and a question mark. There is no equivalent of English auxiliary “do”:

• Queres vir? — “Do you want to come?”
• Querem jantar aqui? — “Do you all want to have dinner here?”

Question words come before the verb. In European Portuguese, o que é que is a very common way to ask “what”:

• O que é que queres? — “What do you want?”
• Onde é que querem ficar? — “Where do they want to stay?”

The shorter O que queres? is also correct. The é que construction is not translated word for word; it is simply a common question pattern.

Choosing the right form of “you”

English “you” can correspond to several Portuguese forms. With a friend in Portugal, tu queres is common. Você quer, o senhor quer, and a senhora quer all take the third-person singular form, quer. In Brazil, você quer is widespread in everyday speech, while tu usage and its associated verb forms vary by region.

For more than one person, use vocês querem in most ordinary contexts. Because address customs vary by region and relationship, listen to how local speakers address one another rather than assuming that one form fits everywhere.

Examples in Context

Portuguese	English	Note
Quero um café.	I want a coffee.	Querer + noun
Queres vir?	Do you want to come?	Informal singular invitation
A Marta quer água sem gás.	Marta wants still water.	Third-person singular
Queremos ir ao cinema.	We want to go to the cinema.	Querer + infinitive
Vocês querem sentar-se aqui?	Do you all want to sit here?	Common plural “you”
Os meus pais querem visitar Lisboa.	My parents want to visit Lisbon.	Plural subject: querem
Não quero sair esta noite.	I don’t want to go out tonight.	Negative before quero
O que é que querem?	What do they want?	The subject depends on context
Queres mais pão?	Do you want some more bread?	Offering something
A senhora quer ver a ementa?	Would you like to see the menu?	Respectful address in Portugal
Eu quero ficar, mas ele quer ir embora.	I want to stay, but he wants to leave.	Pronouns create contrast
Queremos aprender a falar português.	We want to learn to speak Portuguese.	More than one infinitive can follow logically
Quem quer começar?	Who wants to start?	Quem is the subject
Eles não querem esperar pela próxima semana.	They don’t want to wait until next week.	Plural negative

Common Mistakes

Treating querer as fully regular

• Wrong: Eu quo água.
• Right: Eu quero água.
• Why: Querer is irregular. Learn quero as a complete form rather than trying to build it from a regular ending.

Using the infinitive instead of a conjugated form

• Wrong: Nós querer ir ao cinema.
• Right: Nós queremos ir ao cinema.
• Why: The first verb must agree with the subject. Only the following action remains in the infinitive: queremos ir.

Conjugating both verbs

• Wrong: Ela quer compra um livro.
• Right: Ela quer comprar um livro.
• Why: After conjugated querer, use an infinitive: comprar, comer, sair.

Adding an English-style “to”

• Wrong: Quero a aprender português.
• Right: Quero aprender português.
• Why: Portuguese places the infinitive directly after querer. No preposition is needed in this pattern.

Confusing quer and querem

• Wrong: Os estudantes quer estudar.
• Right: Os estudantes querem estudar.
• Why: A plural subject requires querem. Quer is singular; querem is plural.

Making a direct request sound too abrupt

• Potentially abrupt: Quero falar com o diretor.
• Softer: Queria falar com o diretor, por favor.
• Why: Present-tense quero is grammatically correct, but in a request to a stranger it can sound firm. Queria (“I would like,” literally an imperfect form) often softens the request, especially in European Portuguese.

Usage Notes

Desire, willingness, and intention

The central meaning of querer is desire, but context can shift the English translation. Queres ajudar? may mean “Do you want to help?” or, more practically, “Will you help?” Likewise, Ele não quer ouvir can mean not only “He doesn’t want to listen” but also “He refuses to listen.” The Portuguese structure stays the same even when idiomatic English chooses “will” or “refuse.”

Ordering and requesting

At a café, Quero um café is understandable and common in some contexts, but tone matters. Adding por favor makes it more courteous: Quero um café, por favor. In Portugal, queria is especially common for a softened order: Queria um café, por favor. Brazilian speakers may also use Eu queria..., while alternatives such as Gostaria de... can sound more explicitly polite or formal.

Do not conclude that quero is always rude. It is direct, and directness can be perfectly natural among friends or when stating a genuine preference: Não quero ir. Politeness depends on situation, tone, and regional habits.

Pronouns are often omitted

Use Quero descansar when “I” is obvious. State the pronoun for contrast or emphasis: Eu quero ficar; eles querem sair (“I want to stay; they want to leave”). This is a major difference from English, where “want to rest” cannot normally stand alone as a complete sentence.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

You do not need to master the following patterns at A1, but they are common and help explain uses of querer that do not fit the simple querer + noun/infinitive rule.

When different people perform the two actions

If one person wants another person to do something, Portuguese normally uses querer que followed by the subjunctive—a verb form used in certain dependent clauses involving wishes, uncertainty, and similar ideas:

• Quero que venhas amanhã. — “I want you to come tomorrow.”
• Ela quer que nós esperemos aqui. — “She wants us to wait here.”

Compare:

• Quero sair. — I want to leave; the same person wants and leaves.
• Quero que saias. — I want you to leave; the people are different.

This subjunctive pattern belongs to a later stage of study. For now, simply recognise that quero que... requires more than an ordinary present-tense form.

Queria as a softened wish or request

Queria is formally the imperfect past form of querer, but it often refers politely to a present wish:

• Queria reservar uma mesa para duas pessoas. — “I’d like to book a table for two.”
• Queria pedir uma informação. — “I’d like to ask for some information.”

This is not merely a literal past “I wanted.” Context tells you whether it describes a past desire or softens a present request.

Querer dizer

The frequent expression querer dizer means “to mean” or “to intend to say”:

• O que quer dizer esta palavra? — “What does this word mean?”
• Não queria dizer isso. — “I didn’t mean to say that.”

Its meaning cannot always be predicted by translating querer as “want.” Learn querer dizer as a useful expression in its own right.

Other tenses and forms

The infinitive is querer, the gerund is querendo (“wanting”), and the past participle is querido. The participle also appears as an adjective meaning “dear” or “beloved,” as in uma amiga querida. Later you will encounter forms such as quis (“wanted” in a completed past context), queria (“wanted/used to want” or polite “would like”), and quererei (“I will want”). These forms have their own tense rules; they should not be substituted into the A1 present-tense table at random.

Practice Tips

1. Learn the forms in contrasts. Say quero–queres–quer and queremos–quereis–querem, then build one short sentence with each. Pay special attention to singular quer versus plural querem.
2. Make two personal lists. Write five things you want using quero + noun and five actions using quero + infinitive: Quero férias; quero viajar. Then change the subject to nós or eles.
3. Practise real questions. Ask a study partner Queres...? questions about food and plans. Answer with Sim, quero, Não, não quero, or a complete sentence. If you are learning Brazilian Portuguese, also practise the locally appropriate você quer...? pattern.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Regular -ER Verbs — provides the regular present-tense pattern that helps you see where querer is irregular.