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Je ne pense pas qu'il veuille une cuillerée de cette épice.

Je ne pense pas qu'il veuille une cuillerée de cette épice.
I do not think that he wants a spoonful of this spice.
From Lesson 304:Past participles with quantities (en)·French

Questions & Answers about Je ne pense pas qu'il veuille une cuillerée de cette épice.

Why is veuille in the subjunctive here?
The phrase je ne pense pas que (I do not think that) expresses doubt or a negative opinion, which requires the subjunctive mood in French. If the sentence were affirmative (je pense qu'il veut...), you would use the indicative mood because it expresses a statement of belief or certainty.
Is veuille a regular subjunctive form?
No, it is the irregular subjunctive form of vouloir (to want). For je, tu, il/elle/on, and ils/elles, the stem is veuill- (as in qu'il veuille). However, for nous and vous, it switches to the regular imperfect stem voul- (e.g., que nous voulions).
What is the difference between une cuillère and une cuillerée?
Une cuillère refers to the physical object (a spoon), while une cuillerée refers to the contents or the amount held by the spoon (a spoonful). You will see this same -ée suffix used to express amounts or durations in other words, like un poing (a fist) vs. une poignée (a handful), or un an (a year) vs. une année (a year's duration).
Is épice always feminine?
Yes, une épice is feminine, which is why it takes the feminine demonstrative adjective cette here. It is an important exception to memorize because many other common French words ending in -ice are masculine (like un service, un exercice, or un vice).
If we rewrote the second half of this sentence in the past tense and replaced the spice with the pronoun en ("...that he wanted any"), would the past participle agree?
No, it would not. If you wrote Je ne pense pas qu'il en ait voulu, the past participle voulu remains invariable. Even though en replaces a feminine noun (épice), the rule is that when the partitive pronoun en acts as a direct object, the past participle never makes an agreement.

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