A criança quer subir na árvore.

Because criança is a feminine noun in Portuguese, so it takes a in the singular and as in the plural.

• a criança = the child
• as crianças = the children

This is true even if the child is a boy. The grammatical gender of criança is feminine, but the real-life person can be male or female.

No. In this sentence, a criança can refer to any child, boy or girl.

This is an important difference between grammatical gender and natural gender:

• grammatical gender: the noun is feminine, so it uses a
• natural gender: the actual child could be male or female

If you wanted to make the child's sex clear, you would usually add more context, for example:

• A criança, um menino, quer subir na árvore.
• A criança, uma menina, quer subir na árvore.

Quer is the 3rd person singular form of the verb querer = to want.

Conjugation in the present tense:

• eu quero = I want
• você / ele / ela quer = you / he / she wants
• nós queremos = we want
• vocês / eles / elas querem = you all / they want

Since a criança is singular, the verb must also be singular:

• A criança quer...

Because after querer, Portuguese normally uses the infinitive directly.

Pattern:

• querer + infinitive

Examples:

• Quero comer. = I want to eat.
• Ela quer dormir. = She wants to sleep.
• A criança quer subir. = The child wants to climb/go up.

There is no preposition like de here. English uses to before the infinitive, but Portuguese often does not.

Subir basically means to go up, to ascend, or sometimes to climb, depending on context.

In this sentence, subir na árvore means the child wants to climb up the tree.

A useful comparison:

• subir = go up / move upward
• escalar = climb, especially with emphasis on the climbing action, often for mountains, walls, or difficult surfaces

So:

• A criança quer subir na árvore. = very natural for climb up the tree
• A criança quer escalar a árvore. = also possible, but it can sound more focused on the act of climbing itself

Because na is a contraction of:

• em + a = na

So:

• na árvore = in/on the tree depending on context

Portuguese uses these contractions very often:

• em + o = no
• em + a = na
• em + os = nos
• em + as = nas

So subir na árvore is the normal way to say climb up into/on the tree.

This is just a difference in how the two languages express the idea.

In Brazilian Portuguese, subir na árvore is the natural expression for climb a tree. The preposition em/na helps show movement onto or up into that place.

So even though the literal structure may look like go up in/on the tree, the natural English meaning is simply:

• climb the tree
• climb up the tree

Do not translate word for word here.

Sometimes you may hear subir a árvore, but in Brazilian Portuguese subir na árvore is the more common and natural everyday phrasing for a child climbing a tree.

Very roughly:

• subir na árvore = climb up into/on the tree
• subir a árvore = can sound less common or more direct/literary in many contexts

For a learner of Brazilian Portuguese, subir na árvore is the safest choice.

The accent mark shows stress and helps with pronunciation.

Árvore is stressed on the first syllable:

• ÁR-vo-re

Without the accent, a learner might guess the stress wrong. In Portuguese, accent marks are not optional decoration; they are part of the spelling system.

A simple learner-friendly approximation is:

• AHR-voh-ree

But in natural Brazilian speech, the final e is often pronounced more like ee, and the middle o can be reduced depending on accent.

A more practical breakdown:

• ár = stressed
• vo
• re

So:

• ÁR-vo-re

If you want to sound natural, make sure the stress is clearly on ÁR.

Because Portuguese often uses articles in places where English may not.

Here, na árvore literally includes the tree, but in context it can still translate naturally as a tree or the tree, depending on the situation.

This is very common in Portuguese. Articles are used more frequently than in English, especially with nouns in normal, concrete situations.

So even if English might say:

• The child wants to climb a tree

Portuguese can naturally say:

• A criança quer subir na árvore.

The exact English article depends on context, not just the Portuguese wording.

This is the normal neutral order:

• subject + verb + infinitive + prepositional phrase

So:

• A criança quer subir na árvore.

You can change the order for emphasis, but that is less neutral:

• Na árvore, a criança quer subir.
  This sounds marked or poetic, emphasizing the tree.

For everyday speech, the original order is the best one to learn.

In everyday spoken Brazilian Portuguese, you might hear:

• A criança quer subir na árvore.
  This is already perfectly natural.

In very casual speech, pronunciation may reduce a little:

• A criança qué subi na árvore.

That spelling is not standard; it only reflects how speech may sound informally. In correct writing, keep:

• A criança quer subir na árvore.

You need to change both the article, the noun, and the verb:

• As crianças querem subir na árvore.

Breakdown:

• a → as
• criança → crianças
• quer → querem

So:

• A criança quer subir na árvore. = The child wants to climb the tree.
• As crianças querem subir na árvore. = The children want to climb the tree.