Questions & Answers about Eu quero a casa maior.
Yes.
In Brazilian Portuguese it is very common to omit subject pronouns when the verb ending already shows the person.
- Eu quero a casa maior. – perfectly correct, slightly more emphatic: I want the bigger house.
- Quero a casa maior. – also perfectly natural, especially in speech.
You usually keep eu if you want to emphasize or contrast:
- Eu quero a casa maior, mas ele quer a menor.
(I want the bigger house, but he wants the smaller one.)
Because maior is the irregular comparative of grande.
In standard Portuguese:
- grande → maior (bigger)
- pequeno → menor (smaller)
- bom → melhor (better)
- mau/ruim → pior (worse)
So the natural way to say bigger house is casa maior, not casa mais grande.
You might hear mais grande in some regions, but it is considered non‑standard and you should avoid it in normal speech or writing.
It can mean either, depending on context.
Comparative (bigger, between two or a few options)
If you are choosing between a small house and a big house,
Eu quero a casa maior will usually be understood as I want the bigger house (of those options).Superlative (biggest, in a group)
To clearly say the biggest house, you typically add a phrase showing the group:- Eu quero a maior casa da rua. – I want the biggest house on the street.
- Eu quero a maior casa do condomínio. – I want the biggest house in the condo complex.
Said in isolation, Eu quero a casa maior is most naturally understood as I want the bigger house (of the ones we’re talking about), not necessarily the biggest one in the whole world.
You can say Eu quero a maior casa, but the nuance is a bit different.
Eu quero a casa maior.
Very natural when you are literally comparing a few houses: the bigger one of those options.Eu quero a maior casa (da rua / do condomínio / da cidade, etc.)
With a group specified, this strongly sounds like the biggest house of that group and can also sound a bit more formal or emphatic.
Without any extra context, speakers usually prefer a casa maior in everyday conversation.
A maior casa tends to appear more with an explicit group (da rua, da cidade…) or in more “dramatic” speech or writing.
Portuguese uses definite articles a lot, and here a is just the, like in English:
- Eu quero a casa maior. – I want the bigger house.
This is the normal way to talk about a specific house among known options.
You can see Eu quero casa maior, but:
- It sounds more like shorthand / headline style (e.g. in an ad: Procuro casa maior – Looking for a bigger house).
- In normal conversation, if you mean a bigger house (not a specific one), the natural form is:
- Eu quero uma casa maior. – I want a bigger house.
So:
- a casa maior → a specific one: the bigger house.
- uma casa maior → any one: a bigger house.
- casa maior → more telegraphic / generic, often in notes, ads, or very informal speech.
Yes. Querer is normally used with a direct object (no preposition) when what you want is a thing:
- Eu quero a casa maior. – I want the bigger house.
- Ele quer um carro novo. – He wants a new car.
- Nós queremos aquela mesa. – We want that table.
You do not say querer de + noun in this meaning.
Prepositions can appear in other constructions (for example with verbs):
Eu quero falar com você. – I want to talk to you.
But with a simple noun like a casa maior, it goes directly after quero with no preposition.
In a casa maior we have:
- a – feminine singular article
- casa – feminine singular noun
- maior – adjective meaning bigger
Agreement rules:
- Article + noun must agree in gender and number.
- Maior does not change for gender, only for number.
Examples:
- Feminine singular: a casa maior – the bigger house
- Feminine plural: as casas maiores – the bigger houses
- Masculine singular: o carro maior – the bigger car
- Masculine plural: os carros maiores – the bigger cars
So you only add -es to maior in the plural (maiores); there is no feminine form like maiora.
Two very common, more polite options:
Eu gostaria da casa maior.
- gostaria is a conditional form (literally I would like).
- de + a casa maior contracts to da casa maior.
- Very polite and common with waiters, agents, receptionists, etc.
Eu queria a casa maior.
- Literally I wanted the bigger house, but in Brazilian Portuguese this often works like a softer I would like the bigger house.
- Also polite and very, very common in everyday speech.
All three are correct, with slightly different levels of directness:
- Eu quero a casa maior. – neutral, straightforward.
- Eu queria a casa maior. – softer, more polite.
- Eu gostaria da casa maior. – explicitly polite / formal‑polite.
Yes.
When it’s clear from context what noun you mean, you can drop the noun and keep only the article and adjective:
- Qual casa você quer? – Which house do you want?
Eu quero a maior. – I want the bigger one.
Key points:
- The article a must still match the gender/number of the missing noun:
- a maior (for casa, feminine singular)
- o maior (for a masculine singular noun, like carro)
- as maiores / os maiores (for plurals).
The “default” position for most adjectives in Portuguese is after the noun:
- casa grande, casa bonita, casa maior
Some adjectives can also go before the noun, sometimes with a change in nuance:
- um grande homem (a great man) vs um homem grande (a big man, physically)
With maior:
- After the noun (casa maior) is very natural for a simple size comparison: the bigger house.
- Before the noun (a maior casa da rua) is very common for a clear superlative: the biggest house on the street.
So in your sentence, a casa maior is exactly the normal, natural order.
Approximate it like this (in English-friendly terms):
- Eu – like “eh‑oo” blended into one syllable, closer to “ehw”.
- quero – “KEH-roo” (both e as in get; the r is a single tap or light guttural sound depending on region).
- a – like “ah”.
- casa – “KAH-zah” (the s between vowels sounds like z).
- maior – “ma-YOR” (two syllables: ma
- yor, with the r again tapped or guttural).
Spoken naturally, words link together a bit:
Eu quero a casa maior.
ehw KEH-roo ah KAH-zah ma-YOR