Breakdown of Eu quero que o mundo seja mais justo com todas as pessoas, não importa o gênero ou a cor.
Questions & Answers about Eu quero que o mundo seja mais justo com todas as pessoas, não importa o gênero ou a cor.
In Portuguese, when you express a wish about what someone/something should be or do, you usually use:
[verb of desire] + que + [clause in the subjunctive]
So:
- Eu quero que o mundo seja mais justo...
= I want the world to be more just/fair...
You cannot say:
- Eu quero o mundo é... → ungrammatical (you’re just putting two sentences side by side)
- Eu quero que o mundo é... → still wrong, because after que in this structure you need the subjunctive, not the indicative.
The correct pattern is:
- Eu quero que você venha. – I want you to come.
- Eu espero que ele faça isso. – I hope he does that.
- Eu desejo que tudo dê certo. – I wish everything turns out well.
In all of these, the verb after que is in the subjunctive (venha, faça, dê, seja).
All three are forms of ser, but in different moods/tenses:
é – present indicative: a fact in the present.
- O mundo é injusto. – The world is unjust.
será – future indicative: a (more neutral) statement about the future.
- O mundo será melhor. – The world will be better.
seja – present subjunctive: used for wishes, doubts, possibilities, emotions, recommendations, etc., often after certain conjunctions/expressions (like “que” after verbs of desire).
You use seja here because the speaker is expressing a wish/hope, not stating a fact:
- Eu quero que o mundo seja mais justo.
I want the world to be more just. (wish, not reality)
Compare:
- O mundo é mais justo. – The world is more just. (factual statement)
- Tomara que o mundo seja mais justo. – Hopefully the world will be more just. (wish using subjunctive)
You must use que here. It works as a subordinating conjunction, linking the main clause to the subordinate one:
- Main clause: Eu quero
- Subordinate clause: (que) o mundo seja mais justo com todas as pessoas...
The pattern is:
[verb of desire/feeling] + que + [subjunctive clause]
Without que, it sounds broken and ungrammatical:
Eu quero o mundo seja mais justo ❌
Other examples:
- Eu espero que você entenda. – I hope you understand.
- Ela deseja que todos sejam felizes. – She wishes everyone to be happy.
Adjectives in Portuguese must agree in gender and number with the noun they refer to.
- o mundo → masculine singular
- So the adjective must be masculine singular: justo.
If the noun were feminine:
- a sociedade (feminine)
- Eu quero que a sociedade seja mais justa.
Plural examples:
- os países justos – the just/fair countries (masculine plural)
- as leis justas – the just/fair laws (feminine plural)
Here, justo clearly refers to o mundo, so it stays in the masculine singular form.
With the adjective justo, the natural idiomatic construction is:
ser justo com alguém – to be fair/just towards someone
So:
- mais justo com todas as pessoas
= more fair toward all people
If you said para todas as pessoas, it would sound more like “for all people” in a different sense (benefit, direction), and not the standard collocation for “to be fair to someone”.
Examples:
- Ele é muito justo com os funcionários. – He is very fair with/to the employees.
- Precisamos ser mais justos com as crianças. – We need to be fairer to children.
In Portuguese, when you use todo / toda / todos / todas before a countable noun, you generally also need the definite article:
- todas as pessoas – all the people / everyone
- todos os alunos – all (the) students
- todas as cidades – all (the) cities
Without the article, todas pessoas sounds incorrect or at least very non-standard in Brazil.
There are cases where todo comes without the article, but then it means “every, any, whole” in a more general or adverbial sense, and often is singular:
- Toda pessoa erra. – Every person makes mistakes.
- Todo aluno sabe disso. – Every student knows that.
Here we’re talking about all people as a group, so todas as pessoas is the correct, natural form.
Portuguese frequently uses the definite article even when speaking about categories in a general way, especially in contrasts like this:
- o gênero – (the) gender
- a cor – (the) color
Together, “não importa o gênero ou a cor” means “gender or color don’t matter (whatever they are).”
This pattern is very common:
- Não importa a idade. – Age doesn’t matter.
- Não importa o time. – The team doesn’t matter / whichever team it is.
- Não importa a religião. – Religion doesn’t matter.
Dropping the articles (não importa gênero ou cor) is possible in some contexts but less natural here; the version with articles is the standard, smooth-sounding option.
Não importa o gênero ou a cor literally is:
- (It) doesn’t matter, the gender or the color.
Idiomatic English:
No matter the gender or the color.
About “importa” being singular:
- The structure is essentially “não importa X”, where “X” is one thing (a whole phrase), even if that phrase lists two items.
- So Portuguese keeps the verb in the 3rd person singular:
- Não importa o gênero ou a cor. ✔
- Não importam o gênero ou a cor. ❌ (sounds wrong or at least very odd here)
You can think of it as:
“O que importa não é o gênero nem a cor.” – What matters is neither gender nor color.
Yes, you could say:
- não importa o gênero nem a cor
Both versions are acceptable:
- ou – “or”
- nem – “nor” (after a negation)
The nuance:
não importa o gênero ou a cor
Emphasizes that gender or color, in any case, don’t matter. Very natural and common.não importa o gênero nem a cor
Sounds a bit more emphatic or formal, like saying “neither gender nor color matter.”
In practice, both convey essentially the same idea in this sentence.
In contemporary Brazilian Portuguese, especially in inclusive / social-justice contexts:
- gênero is often used in a social and identity sense (women, men, non-binary people, etc.).
- sexo tends to refer more to biological sex (male/female) or is associated with sexual activity.
So:
- não importa o gênero ou a cor
Fits modern, inclusive language: “No matter a person’s gender or skin color.”
Using sexo here would not be wrong grammatically, but it would sound less aligned with current social/identity vocabulary and potentially more clinical or old-fashioned in this type of sentence.
The comma separates the main statement from an additional concessive/parenthetical idea:
- Main: Eu quero que o mundo seja mais justo com todas as pessoas
- Extra: não importa o gênero ou a cor
It’s like saying:
- I want the world to be fairer to all people, no matter the gender or color.
This “no matter...” part is not grammatically required for the sentence to be complete; it adds a condition or emphasis. In Portuguese, such added clauses/phrases are typically separated by a comma.
Yes, you can say:
- Eu quero um mundo mais justo com todas as pessoas.
Both are correct, but the nuance changes:
Eu quero que o mundo seja mais justo...
- Refers to this actual world we live in.
- Expresses a wish that our current world changes.
Eu quero um mundo mais justo...
- Sounds more like wishing for a type of world, a more abstract ideal.
- Almost like saying: “I wish for a fairer world.”
They overlap a lot in normal conversation, but:
- The original sentence is more clearly about transforming the existing world.
Yes. In Portuguese, the subject pronoun is often optional because the verb ending shows who the subject is:
- Quero que o mundo seja mais justo...
Still clearly means: “I want the world to be more just...”
Using Eu:
Eu quero... can add a bit of emphasis or clarity (e.g., contrasting with what others want), but grammatically both are correct:
- Eu quero que o mundo seja mais justo...
- Quero que o mundo seja mais justo...
Both are completely natural in Brazilian Portuguese.
Yes, a very common alternative is:
- independentemente do gênero ou da cor
(or independente do gênero ou da cor, in everyday speech)
So the whole sentence could be:
- Eu quero que o mundo seja mais justo com todas as pessoas, independentemente do gênero ou da cor.
Meaning the same as:
- I want the world to be fairer to all people, regardless of gender or color.
Both “não importa...” and “independentemente de...” are idiomatic and frequent in Brazilian Portuguese.