Questions & Answers about Eu quero comer o bolo agora.
You don’t have to say Eu here. Portuguese is a “null‑subject” language, so when the verb form clearly shows the person, the subject pronoun is often dropped.
- Eu quero comer o bolo agora. – perfectly correct.
- Quero comer o bolo agora. – also perfectly correct and very natural.
Adding Eu usually gives a bit of emphasis, like:
- Eu want to eat the cake now (maybe not someone else).
Quero is the present‑tense, first‑person singular form of the verb querer (to want).
Present tense of querer:
- eu quero – I want
- você / ele / ela / a gente quer – you / he / she / we (informal) wants
- nós queremos – we want
- vocês / eles / elas querem – you (pl.) / they want
In your sentence, you must use the conjugated form that matches eu:
- ✅ Eu quero comer o bolo agora.
- ❌ Eu querer comer o bolo agora. (using the infinitive is wrong here)
- ❌ Eu quer comer o bolo agora. (wrong conjugation)
In Portuguese, the infinitive form of the verb (like comer) already includes the idea of “to”:
- comer = “to eat”
- falar = “to speak”
- beber = “to drink”
The normal structure is:
querer + infinitive
quero comer, quero falar, quero beber
So you do not add a separate word like “to”:
- ✅ Eu quero comer o bolo agora.
- ❌ Eu quero de comer o bolo agora.
- ❌ Eu quero para comer o bolo agora.
Comer is the infinitive form (the base form, like “to eat” in English).
After certain verbs that express desire, intention, or possibility, Portuguese normally uses the infinitive:
- Eu quero comer. – I want to eat.
- Eu preciso estudar. – I need to study.
- Eu posso sair. – I can leave.
So quero comer is “I want (to) eat”, with comer staying in the infinitive.
O is the definite article (“the”) for masculine singular nouns.
- o bolo = the cake
- um bolo = a cake
- bolo (without article) = cake in a more general / non‑specific sense
In this sentence, o bolo suggests a specific cake that speaker and listener can identify (for example, the cake that’s on the table right now).
Portuguese uses definite articles more often than English, so you’ll see o / a / os / as very frequently before nouns.
Yes, there’s a nuance:
Eu quero comer bolo agora.
→ “I want to eat cake now.” (cake in general, some cake, not a particular one already specified)Eu quero comer o bolo agora.
→ “I want to eat the cake now.” (a specific cake both people know about)
In everyday Brazilian Portuguese, both are possible and sound natural; the version with the article (o bolo) more clearly points to a particular cake.
You can move agora; the meaning stays basically the same, but the emphasis changes slightly.
All of these are correct:
Eu quero comer o bolo agora.
(neutral; standard place for a time word)Agora eu quero comer o bolo.
(emphasizes “now” – as opposed to earlier or later: Now I want to eat the cake.)Eu agora quero comer o bolo.
(also possible, a bit more marked; the “now” applies strongly to the wanting.)
In practice, the first two options are the most common.
Because of agora (“now”), the default interpretation is right now / at this moment:
- Eu quero comer o bolo agora.
→ I want to eat the cake now, not later.
Without agora, it could be more general:
- Eu quero comer o bolo.
→ I want to eat the cake (at some point; context decides when).
A more polite or softer version is:
- Eu gostaria de comer o bolo agora.
→ “I would like to eat the cake now.”
Another very common softening in Brazilian Portuguese is to use the imperfect past of querer:
- Eu queria comer o bolo agora.
Literally “I wanted to eat the cake now”, but in context it works like “I’d like to eat the cake now” and sounds less direct than Eu quero comer o bolo agora.
You can say:
- Eu estou querendo comer o bolo agora.
It’s grammatical and used in Brazilian Portuguese, but it adds a nuance:
Eu quero comer o bolo agora.
→ direct statement of desire: I want to eat the cake now.Eu estou querendo comer o bolo agora.
→ often feels more like “I’ve been wanting / I’m really in the mood to eat the cake now” or “I’m kind of wanting to eat the cake now.”
It can sound a bit more informal, sometimes suggesting an ongoing or growing desire rather than a simple, straightforward “I want”.
Approximate Brazilian pronunciations:
quero → roughly “KEH-roo”
- que sounds like “keh”
- r here is a quick, soft tap of the tongue (similar to the American English ‘tt’ in “water” when pronounced quickly)
comer → roughly “ko-MEH(h)”
- stress on -mer: coMER
- the final r in most of Brazil is pronounced kind of like a soft h in “huh”, or is very weak/almost silent depending on region
bolo → roughly “BOH-loo”
- stress on BO: BO‑lo
- both o’s are like the “o” in “bowl” (but usually a bit shorter)
There’s regional variation, especially with the r, but these approximations will be understood everywhere.
Portuguese nouns have grammatical gender, usually masculine or feminine. Bolo is masculine, so it takes:
- o bolo – the cake
- um bolo – a cake
- do bolo – of the cake (de + o)
Some general patterns (with exceptions):
- Nouns ending in ‑o are often masculine: bolo, carro (car), livro (book).
- Nouns ending in ‑a are often feminine: mesa (table), casa (house).
But there are many exceptions, so you mostly learn each noun’s gender along with the noun itself. The article (o / a) tells you the gender in context.