Se você quiser, eu posso explicar mais uma vez.

If you want, I can explain one more time.

Breakdown of Se você quiser, eu posso explicar mais uma vez.

• eu: I
• você: you
• querer: to want
• poder: to be able to

Questions & Answers about Se você quiser, eu posso explicar mais uma vez.

Why does the sentence start with se?

Here, se means if.

So Se você quiser means If you want or more naturally If you’d like.

This is a very common use of se in Portuguese:

• Se chover, eu fico em casa. = If it rains, I’m staying home.
• Se você puder, me avise. = If you can, let me know.

Be careful: se can also mean other things in Portuguese, such as a reflexive pronoun, but in this sentence it is just the conjunction if.

Why is it quiser and not quer?

Because after se referring to a future possibility, Portuguese usually uses the future subjunctive.

So:

• Se você quiser = If you want / If you’d like

The verb querer has:

• quer = present indicative: you want
• quiser = future subjunctive: if you want / should you want

This is one of the most important patterns in Portuguese:

• Se você quiser, eu ajudo. = If you want, I’ll help.
• Quando você chegar, me liga. = When you arrive, call me.

English does not mark this as strongly, so this tense often feels strange to English speakers at first.

What exactly is grammatically?