Querer (To Want) — Full Conjugation

Querer means to want — and also, crucially, to love (a person, when used with bem: querer bem a alguém). It is one of the most frequent verbs in the language, and one of the most highly irregular. Almost every tense has at least one surprise. But the effort is repaid many times over, because you will use querer dozens of times a day: to order a coffee, to make a polite request, to express what you want someone else to do, to say "I meant to say...", to say "accidentally" (sem querer).

Two facts about querer are worth memorising before anything else:

1. In the 3rd person singular present, it is quer — without the final -e that a regular -er verb would have (like come, vive). This puts it in the same small family as fazer → faz, dizer → diz, produzir → produz.
2. For polite requests, European Portuguese uses the imperfect (queria), not the conditional. Queria um café, se faz favor is the standard way to order — the present quero is perfectly grammatical but sounds blunt, almost demanding.

Header

Present indicative — presente do indicativo

Note the 3sg quer — no final -e, parallel to faz / diz / produz.

Imperfect indicative — pretérito imperfeito

Regular in form, but pragmatically the most important tense of querer in modern European Portuguese: queria is the standard polite "I'd like."

Preterite indicative — pretérito perfeito simples

This is a strong preterite — irregular stem quis-, no accents. Note that 1sg and 3sg are identical (quis). And importantly, the preterite quis carries a strong semantic implication: "I wanted and acted on it" — often translated as "tried" or, in the negative (não quis), "refused".

This "active/decisive" flavour of the preterite is why for simple past wishes ("I wanted a coffee") speakers often reach for the imperfect queria instead.

Pluperfect indicative, simple — pretérito mais-que-perfeito simples

Built on the preterite stem quis- plus the endings of the simple pluperfect. Literary register.

Pluperfect indicative, compound — pretérito mais-que-perfeito composto

Present perfect — pretérito perfeito composto

Simple future — futuro do indicativo simples

The future is regular — unlike some other highly irregular verbs (dizer → direi, fazer → farei, trazer → trarei), querer builds its future straightforwardly from the infinitive.

In everyday speech, the synthetic future of querer is rare. Speakers prefer vou querer or simply the present with a future adverb.

Future perfect — futuro perfeito

Conditional — condicional (futuro do pretérito)

Again regular in formation. But note: in Portugal, queria (imperfect) is far more common than quereria (conditional) for polite "I'd like." Quereria exists and is fully correct, but sounds bookish in everyday speech.

Conditional perfect — condicional composto

Present subjunctive — presente do conjuntivo

Irregular stem queir-. This is the form to learn as a block: queira, queiras, queira, queiramos, queiram.

The present subjunctive shows up in two very common contexts:

• Se quiser... and its variants ("if you want...") — Se quiser, posso ajudar = If you'd like, I can help.
• Polite formulas: queira sentar-se, queira ter a bondade de... = please be so kind as to...

Imperfect subjunctive — imperfeito do conjuntivo

Built on the preterite stem quis-.

Future subjunctive — futuro do conjuntivo

Also built on the quis- stem. This is an extremely common form in European Portuguese, because expressions like quando quiser, se quiser, enquanto quiseres appear everywhere in polite and planning contexts.

Present perfect subjunctive — pretérito perfeito do conjuntivo

Pluperfect subjunctive — pretérito mais-que-perfeito do conjuntivo

Future perfect subjunctive — futuro perfeito do conjuntivo

Imperative — imperativo

Here is one of the most distinctive features of querer: the everyday tu imperative quer is almost never used. Instead, polite formulas with queira (present subjunctive used as polite imperative for você) are the living forms: queira entrar, queira sentar-se, queira aguardar.

Affirmative:

Negative:

Personal infinitive — infinitivo pessoal

Compound personal infinitive — infinitivo pessoal composto

Usage

Querer + infinitive ("want to do")

The subject is the same in both clauses — so Portuguese uses a plain infinitive, not a subjunctive.

Querer que + subjunctive ("want someone to do")

When the subject changes, the second clause takes the subjunctive (present subjunctive after present/future; imperfect subjunctive after past/conditional). This is the single most common reason English speakers mis-form the subjunctive in Portuguese.

Queria + infinitive / noun: the polite request

In restaurants, shops, cafés, and any service interaction in Portugal, the go-to form is queria + [thing] or queria + [infinitive].

Using quero here is not wrong, but it sounds direct. Portuguese service culture strongly prefers the softened imperfect.

Sem querer — "accidentally, unintentionally"

A fixed adverbial phrase built on the plain infinitive.

Querer dizer — "to mean"

Literally "to want to say." This is the normal Portuguese way to say "means."

Key takeaways

• Querer is highly irregular. Learn the key stems: quer- (present), quis- (preterite, imperfect subjunctive, future subjunctive), queir- (present subjunctive).
• The 3sg present is quer — no final -e.
• In European Portuguese, queria (imperfect) is the default polite "I'd like." Reserve quero for direct, assertive contexts.
• Querer que triggers the subjunctive in the subordinate clause.
• The preterite quis often means "tried" or "refused" (in the negative), not just "wanted."
• Fixed expressions are everywhere: sem querer (unintentionally), querer dizer (to mean), querer bem (to care about), queira + infinitive (polite formula), se quiser (if you like).
• The future and conditional are regular — no contracted stem like direi or farei.