Conjugation of voler

Voler means “to want,” “to intend,” and in some contexts “to love or care for.” It also forms polite requests with the conditional voldria and the indispensable expression voler dir “to mean.” Its complement changes with the subject: vull sortir when one person both wants and acts, but vull que surtis when the desired action has a different subject.

The principal parts are present vull/vols, imperfect volia, velar past volgu-, contracted future voldr-, present subjunctive vulgu-, and participle volgut. As with poder, the written alternation between o and u is part of the paradigm.

The complement contrast belongs to the wider system of volition and the present subjunctive, while this page supplies the complete forms and verb-specific constructions.

Nonfinite forms

The gerund is volent, not vulguent. Compound tenses use invariable volgut: elles han volgut esperar. Agreeing volgut, volguda... has adjectival meaning “dear, beloved” and is common in salutations such as Benvolguda Marta; that use is not a compound tense.

Indicative: simple and periphrastic tenses

The first-person present vull is exceptional; the other present forms use vol-. This is not an incoative verb, so voleixo cannot replace vull. Third-person plural volen is also a form of volar “to fly”; Els ocells volen and Els clients volen una resposta are homographic, but their complements and context leave little ambiguity.

The usual conversational past is vaig voler. Synthetic volguí, volgueres... is especially (formal/literary) in Central usage and remains regionally spoken. Future and conditional contract to voldr-, not voler-. Conditional voldria is extremely frequent as a courteous way to state a request or preference.

Indicative: compound tenses

All compound tenses use haver + volgut. The participle remains next to its infinitival complement: he volgut parlar, not a calque with an extra preposition.

Past anterior forms are chiefly (formal/literary); the corresponding periphrastic series is vaig haver volgut, vas haver volgut, va haver volgut, vam haver volgut, vau haver volgut, van haver volgut. Present perfect and conditional perfect are far more frequent in ordinary interaction.

Subjunctive: simple and compound

As with poder, present subjunctive and imperative use written u even in unstressed vulguem, vulgueu; imperfect volgués returns to o. Present vulgui appears after doubt, concession, or an indefinite relative: qui vulgui venir “whoever wants to come.”

The last two rows are restricted (regional/formal) forms, included for recognition rather than as default spoken choices.

Imperative and polite requests

The imperative is grammatical but rarely commands someone simply to want. It survives mainly in stylized exhortations and in formulas such as vulgueu acceptar... (formal). The common concessive expression vulguis o no vulguis “whether you like it or not” instead uses the present subjunctive. Normal requests use vols...?, polite conditional voldries...?, or first-person voldria....

Infinitive or que clause

When the subject of wanting also performs the desired action, voler takes a bare infinitive: vull descansar. When the desired action has its own subject, use que + subjunctive: vull que descansis. English can say “I want you to rest,” but Catalan does not insert a direct object before an infinitive in this pattern.

Weak pronouns belonging to the infinitive may climb before voler or attach to the infinitive: ho vull comprar / vull comprar-ho; hi volem participar / volem participar-hi. Voler itself takes a direct object without a preposition: vull aquest llibre.

Meaning, affection, and pronominal use

Voler dir means “to mean” and treats the words or sign as its subject: Què vol dir això? The construction is not the same as voler + dir in “want to say,” where context supplies an animate wanter: Et vull dir una cosa.

With people, voler can express affection, especially in voler bé a algú. Reciprocal voler-se means that people love or care for one another: es volen molt. Here es has real reciprocal content. It is not freely added to ordinary wanting: es vol un cafè has a different impersonal/passive structure, not a pronominal dictionary verb.

The fixed phrase sense voler means “accidentally, unintentionally,” and tant si vols com si no means “whether you want to or not.” These preserve the ordinary forms rather than creating a separate conjugation.

(Regional: Valencian) present subjunctive commonly has vulga, vulgues, vulga, vulguem, vulgueu, vulguen, with imperfect volguera.... General vulgui and volgués are the baseline here. All major standards preserve the crucial spelling contrast between present vulgu- and past volgu-.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

Organize voler around vull, volia, volgué, voldré, vulgui, and volgut. Use a bare infinitive when the subject stays the same, but que + subjunctive when it changes. Conditional voldria makes a courteous request; voler dir expresses meaning. Keep reciprocal es in es volen and remember the spelling split vulguem versus volguéssim.