Breakdown of Quantos livros você quer comprar hoje?
Questions & Answers about Quantos livros você quer comprar hoje?
Quantos agrees in gender and number with the noun livros (books).
- livro = masculine singular → matching question word: quanto livro? (how much book? – normally you’d use the plural in real speech)
- livros = masculine plural → matching question word: quantos livros? (how many books?)
Forms of quanto:
- quanto – masculine singular (quanto dinheiro?)
- quanta – feminine singular (quanta água?)
- quantos – masculine plural (quantos livros?)
- quantas – feminine plural (quantas pessoas?)
So you use quantos because livros is masculine and plural.
In this sentence, quantos means how many (countable items).
General rule:
- Use quanto / quanta / quantos / quantas with nouns.
- Countable → how many: quantos livros (how many books), quantas maçãs (how many apples)
- Uncountable → how much: quanto dinheiro (how much money), quanta água (how much water)
English splits the idea into how much vs how many, but Portuguese always uses some form of quanto, changed for gender and number.
You’re asking about how many books, so the noun has to be plural in Portuguese:
- um livro – one book
- dois livros – two books
- quantos livros? – how many books?
Saying quantos livro (without s) is grammatically wrong; the question word and the noun both have to match in number (quantos + livros).
In Brazilian Portuguese, você takes third person singular verb forms:
- eu quero – I want
- você / ele / ela quer – you / he / she wants
- nós queremos – we want
- vocês / eles / elas querem – you (plural) / they want
Queres is the second person singular (tu) form, more common in European Portuguese and some regions of Brazil that use tu.
So for standard Brazilian Portuguese with você, you say você quer, not você queres.
Yes, but then the verb usually changes:
Standard forms:
- Tu queres comprar quantos livros hoje? – using tu (more typical of European Portuguese or some Brazilian regions)
- Você quer comprar quantos livros hoje? – using você (standard in Brazil)
In many parts of Brazil people speak non‑standard but very common forms like:
- Tu quer comprar quantos livros hoje?
Grammatically traditional: tu queres
Colloquial in much of Brazil: tu quer
Portuguese often uses a main verb plus an infinitive, just like English want to buy.
- quer = wants / do you want
- comprar = to buy (infinitive)
So quer comprar literally is want to buy.
Other similar patterns:
- preciso estudar – I need to study
- gosto de viajar – I like to travel
- começou a chover – it started to rain
After querer (to want), the next verb usually stays in the infinitive (base form):
- eu quero comprar – I want to buy
- você quer comprar – you want to buy
- eles querem comprar – they want to buy
No matter who the subject is, the second verb (here comprar) stays in the infinitive.
Using compra here would change the structure and sound wrong:
- você quer compra – incorrect in standard Portuguese.
(You could say você compra = you buy / you are buying, but that’s a different sentence.)
Yes, you can drop the subject pronoun; it’s very common:
- Quantos livros quer comprar hoje?
In Portuguese, the verb ending (in many tenses) often shows who the subject is, so the pronoun is optional. Here, context usually makes clear that quer refers to você.
However, because quer could also refer to ele/ela (he/she), including você sometimes avoids ambiguity:
- Quantos livros você quer comprar hoje? – clearly “you”
You can move some parts without changing the basic meaning. All of these are possible:
- Quantos livros você quer comprar hoje? – very natural, neutral
- Quantos livros você quer comprar, hoje? – similar, comma just reflects a pause in speech
- Você quer comprar quantos livros hoje? – also common; often used when surprised or confirming (like “how many books did you say?”)
- Hoje, quantos livros você quer comprar? – emphasizes today
The most “textbook neutral” version is the original:
Quantos livros você quer comprar hoje?
Yes. Removing hoje simply removes the idea of today:
- Quantos livros você quer comprar? – How many books do you want to buy?
- Quantos livros você quer comprar hoje? – How many books do you want to buy today?
Grammatically, both are perfectly fine.
Hoje means today.
Common positions:
- Quantos livros você quer comprar hoje?
- Hoje, quantos livros você quer comprar?
- Você quer comprar quantos livros hoje?
Putting hoje at the end (as in the original) is very natural in spoken Brazilian Portuguese.
It’s already polite and completely acceptable in normal conversation and in shops.
To sound softer / more polite / more formal, you can say:
- Quantos livros você gostaria de comprar hoje? – How many books would you like to buy today?
- Quantos livros o senhor / a senhora quer comprar hoje? – formal “you” (sir/ma’am)
But the original Quantos livros você quer comprar hoje? is fine in almost all everyday situations.
Approximate guide for English speakers (Brazilian Portuguese, general accent):
- Quantos – like KWAHN-toos
- qu = k sound
- an is nasal (like in song, not sand)
- livros – LEE-vroos
- li like lee
- r is soft, almost like a light h or soft r, depending on region
- você – voh-SEH
- stress on the last syllable
- final ê like say but shorter and more closed
- quer – keh(r)
- similar to care without the English r sound at the end
- comprar – kohm-PRAHR
- om is nasal (like on in French bon)
- final r is often like an h sound or very soft, depending on region
- hoje – OH-zhee
- j like the s in measure or g in genre
Spoken smoothly, it sounds roughly like:
KWAHN-toos LEE-vroos voh-SEH KEH kohm-PRAHR OH-zhee?