Present Indicative of Querer and Saber | Portuguese (Brazil) Grammar

Querer ("to want") and saber ("to know") are two of the most frequent verbs in the language and both are irregular. They are worth learning together because each hides one strikingly odd form — querer's consonant-final quer and saber's tiny sei — and because saber carries a meaning distinction English does not make.

Querer — to want

Subject	Form
eu	quero
você / ele / ela	quer
nós	queremos
vocês / eles / elas	querem

The tu form is queres (regional). There is no vós in Brazilian Portuguese.

The form to flag is the third-person singular quer. It ends in a consonant, with no final -e — which is rare in Portuguese verb conjugation and trips up nearly every English-speaking learner, who instinctively writes quere. There is no quere; the correct form is quer.

Ele quer sair mais cedo hoje.

He wants to leave earlier today.

Eu quero um café sem açúcar, por favor.

I want a coffee with no sugar, please.

querer + infinitive — wanting to do something

Like English "want to," querer takes a direct infinitive with no preposition.

A gente quer viajar nas férias, mas ainda não decidimos para onde.

We want to travel over the break, but we haven't decided where yet.

Você quer comer agora ou prefere esperar?

Do you want to eat now or would you rather wait?

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To soften a request, Brazilians shift querer to the conditional: eu queria um café ("I'd like a coffee") sounds more polite than the blunt eu quero um café. Even the past-like queria is used as a courtesy form when ordering — it is not really about the past.

There is also a romantic sense: querer bem a alguém or simply te quero leans toward "I care for you / love you" — gentler than amar. Recognize it in songs and affectionate speech.

One more idiom: querer dizer ("to mean," literally "to want to say"). When a Brazilian asks what a word means, they ask o que isso quer dizer? — "what does that mean?" Here querer has bleached out its "want" sense entirely and just forms part of the verb "to mean."

O que essa palavra quer dizer?

What does this word mean?

Saber — to know (facts and skills)

Subject	Form
eu	sei
você / ele / ela	sabe
nós	sabemos
vocês / eles / elas	sabem

The tu form is sabes (regional). There is no vós in Brazilian Portuguese.

The eu form sei is wildly irregular — it shares nothing with the rest of the paradigm. It is also extremely common: eu sei ("I know") and não sei ("I don't know") are among the first phrases any learner needs. Just memorize sei outright.

Why so irregular? Saber descends from Latin sapere ("to taste, to be wise") — the same root that gives English "savor" and "sapient." The first-person sapio eroded over centuries into the single-syllable sei, while the rest of the paradigm kept more of the stem. This is why sei looks like it belongs to a different verb: phonetically, it almost does. The upside is that sei is short, common, and quickly becomes automatic.

Eu não sei onde deixei as chaves.

I don't know where I left the keys.

Você sabe que horas são?

Do you know what time it is?

saber + infinitive — knowing how to do something

Saber + infinitive means "know how to," i.e., having a learned skill. English drops the "how" here.

Eu sei nadar, mas não sei mergulhar.

I know how to swim, but I don't know how to dive.

Ela sabe dirigir muito bem.

She knows how to drive really well.

Notice there is no word for "how" in the Portuguese — saber nadar, not saber como nadar. The infinitive alone carries the "how to."

Saber vs conhecer — two kinds of knowing

English uses one verb, "know," for everything. Portuguese splits it. Getting this right is a real marker of fluency.

Saber = know facts, information, and how to do things. It typically introduces a clause (sei que..., sei onde..., sei nadar) or a piece of information.
Conhecer = be acquainted with a person, place, or thing — to have met them, been there, experienced it. It typically takes a direct noun.

Eu sei o nome dele, mas não conheço ele pessoalmente.

I know his name, but I don't know him personally.

Você conhece São Paulo?

Are you familiar with / have you been to São Paulo?

You sabe a fact about São Paulo (its population, its weather); you conhece São Paulo by having been there. The full decision guide lives on the saber vs conhecer page.

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Quick test: if you can replace "know" with "know how to" or "know that...," use saber. If you can replace it with "be familiar with" or "have met / been to," use conhecer.

Common Mistakes

❌ Ele quere sair cedo.

Incorrect — the form ends in a consonant: quer, not quere.

✅ Ele quer sair cedo.

He wants to leave early.

❌ Eu sabo a resposta.

Incorrect — the eu form is the irregular sei.

✅ Eu sei a resposta.

I know the answer.

❌ Eu conheço que ele mora aqui.

Incorrect — facts and clauses take saber, not conhecer.

✅ Eu sei que ele mora aqui.

I know that he lives here.

❌ Você sabe o meu irmão?

Incorrect — for being acquainted with a person, use conhecer.

✅ Você conhece o meu irmão?

Do you know my brother?

❌ Eu sei como nadar.

Incorrect — drop the 'how'; saber + infinitive carries it.

✅ Eu sei nadar.

I know how to swim.

Key takeaways

querer: quero, quer, queremos, querem — quer has no final -e (never quere).
saber: sei, sabe, sabemos, sabem — sei is highly irregular; memorize it.
querer + infinitive = want to do; saber + infinitive = know how to do.
saber is for facts and skills; conhecer is for being acquainted with people and places.

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