Questions & Answers about Eu quero cuidar de você.
In Brazilian Portuguese, the verb cuidar normally requires the preposition de when it means to take care of / look after someone or something.
- Correct: cuidar de você, cuidar de mim, cuidar de crianças, cuidar de plantas
- Strange/wrong in most contexts: cuidar você
Without de, cuidar can sometimes mean something closer to handle / deal with an issue (more common in formal or European Portuguese), as in Vou cuidar disso (I’ll take care of that). But when you talk about taking care of a person, in Brazilian Portuguese you almost always say cuidar de + person.
So Eu quero cuidar de você is the natural way to say I want to take care of you.
Yes. Subject pronouns (like eu, você, ele) are often omitted in Portuguese because the verb ending usually tells you who the subject is.
- Eu quero cuidar de você.
- Quero cuidar de você.
Both are correct and mean the same thing. The version with eu tends to:
- add a bit of emphasis on I (as in I want to take care of you, not someone else), or
- sound slightly more explicit or emphatic in emotional contexts.
In everyday speech, you will hear both forms.
After verbs of desire, intention, or ability (like querer, poder, precisar, gostar de), Portuguese normally uses the infinitive.
Pattern: [conjugated verb] + [infinitive]
- Eu quero cuidar de você.
- Eu posso cuidar de você. (I can take care of you.)
- Eu preciso cuidar de você. (I need to take care of you.)
You cannot say:
- ✗ Eu quero cuido de você.
If you want both verbs conjugated, you must change the structure, for example:
- Eu quero que você cuide de mim.
(I want you to take care of me. – note the que and the subjunctive cuide)
It mainly expresses a desire or intention, not a firm plan or promise.
- Eu quero cuidar de você.
= I want to take care of you. (focus on wanting)
To talk more clearly about the future, you might say:
- Eu vou cuidar de você. – I’m going to take care of you. (plan / promise)
- Eu vou cuidar de você, não se preocupa. – very reassuring
In emotional or romantic contexts, Eu quero cuidar de você can imply a future intention (like I want to be the one who takes care of you from now on), but grammatically it’s about wanting, not about an already set future action.
It can be romantic, but it doesn’t have to be. Context and tone decide.
Possible contexts:
Romantic:
A partner saying it to another: Eu quero cuidar de você = I want to look after you, protect you, be there for you.Family:
A parent to a child: Eu quero cuidar de você, você ainda é pequeno.Medical / professional:
A nurse or doctor: Calma, eu quero cuidar de você e fazer você melhorar.
So the sentence itself is neutral; it simply expresses a wish to take care of someone. Romance comes from who says it to whom and in what situation.
Yes, but you need to be aware of person system and regional style.
With the pronoun system that uses você (standard in most of Brazil):
- Most natural: Quero cuidar de você.
- Quero te cuidar is heard in Brazil, but grammatically it’s a bit messy:
- te belongs to the tu system,
- você belongs to a different system.
- Brazilians do mix tu and você in real-life speech, so you will hear:
- Eu quero te cuidar.
but for learners, it’s safer and more standard to say cuidar de você.
- Eu quero te cuidar.
With the tu system (more common in some regions, like parts of the South and Northeast):
- Quero cuidar de ti. – grammatically correct and natural where tu is used.
- Also possible: Quero te cuidar.
In summary:
- Neutral, safe Brazilian Portuguese: Quero cuidar de você.
- With tu: Quero cuidar de ti / Quero te cuidar.
- Avoid mixing systems in writing until you’re comfortable with informal speech.
After de, Portuguese has special fused forms for ele / ela / eles / elas, but not for você.
- de + ele → dele (of him / his / from him)
- de + ela → dela (of her / hers / from her)
- de + eles → deles
- de + elas → delas
But você does not fuse:
- de você – of you / about you / from you
So:
- Eu quero cuidar de você.
- Eu quero cuidar dele. (I want to take care of him.)
- Eu quero cuidar dela. (I want to take care of her.)
- Eu quero cuidar deles. (I want to take care of them.)
You need a subordinate clause with que and the subjunctive:
- Eu quero que você cuide de mim.
- quero = I want
- que introduces the subordinate clause
- você cuide = you take care (present subjunctive)
- de mim = of me
You cannot express this meaning with just Eu quero você cuidar de mim – that structure is wrong.
Some variations:
- Eu quero que você cuide bem de mim. – I want you to take good care of me.
- Eu só quero que você cuide de mim. – I just want you to take care of me.
This is just the normal pattern cuidar de + tonic pronoun:
- de mim – of me
- de você – of you (singular)
- de nós – of us
- de vocês – of you (plural)
- dele / dela / deles / delas – of him / her / them
Examples:
- Eu quero cuidar de mim. – I want to take care of myself.
- Eu quero cuidar de você. – I want to take care of you.
- Eu quero cuidar de nós. – I want to take care of us (our relationship, family, etc.).
- Eu quero cuidar deles. – I want to take care of them.
You might also hear me cuidar / se cuidar in Brazilian Portuguese:
- Eu quero me cuidar. – I want to take care of myself (self‑care, health, etc.).
- Você precisa se cuidar. – You need to take care of yourself.
Both cuidar de mim and me cuidar are common; me cuidar feels a bit more informal and colloquial.
Yes, and the nuance changes:
Eu quero cuidar de você.
Focus: desire/intention.
→ I want to take care of you (I feel like doing it, I’d like to).Eu vou cuidar de você.
Focus: future action / promise / plan.
→ I’m going to take care of you / I will take care of you.
You might say both together for emotional emphasis:
- Eu quero cuidar de você, e eu vou cuidar de você.
I want to take care of you, and I will.
No changes appear in this exact sentence:
- Eu – first person singular; doesn’t change with gender.
- quero – 1st person singular of querer; same for male or female speaker.
- cuidar – infinitive; doesn’t change.
- de você – você is gender‑neutral and singular.
To address more than one person, you would change only você:
- Eu quero cuidar de vocês. – I want to take care of you (plural).
Approximate Brazilian pronunciation (neutral accent):
- Eu → like “eh-oo” merged: [ew]
- quero → [ˈkɛ.ɾu], roughly KEH-roo (short e like in get; tapped r like Spanish pero)
- cuidar → [kujˈdaɾ], roughly kwee-DAR
- cui sounds like kwee
- final r often like a soft h or almost silent in many regions: kwee-DAH / kwee-DAH(h)
- de → in most of Brazil [dʒi], like “jee”
- você → [voˈse], like vo-SEH
Spoken smoothly, it might sound like:
- [ew ˈkɛ.ɾu kujˈda(h) dʒi voˈse]
→ “eh-oo KEH-roo kwee-DAH jee vo-SEH”
No, de does not contract with você.
- Correct: de você
- Wrong: ✗ d’você, ✗ docê (you might hear reductions in fast speech, but they are not standard spelling)
Contractions with de happen with articles and ele/ela/eles/elas, for example:
- de + o → do
- de + a → da
- de + os → dos
- de + as → das
- de + ele → dele
- de + ela → dela
But de + você always stays de você in correct writing.