O povo quer paz.

O is the definite article, meaning the.

So o povo = the people.

In Portuguese, using the article here sounds natural and complete in a normal sentence. Without it, povo quer paz would sound unusual in everyday speech, though you might see article-dropping in headlines, slogans, or very poetic style.

Because povo is grammatically singular.

It is a collective noun: it refers to a group, but the noun itself is singular, like the crowd or the public in English. So the verb agrees with povo, not with the individuals inside the group.

• O povo quer paz. = singular verb
• not O povo querem paz.

Povo usually means people in the sense of the population, the common people, or the people of a country/place.

Depending on context, it can sound like:

• the people
• the populace
• ordinary people
• sometimes even folks in more informal use

It does not usually mean person. For one person, you would use pessoa.

These words can all relate to people, but they are not interchangeable in every situation.

• povo = the people, the populace, a group seen collectively
• pessoas = people/persons, individual human beings
• gente = people, folks, everyone, often very common in spoken Brazilian Portuguese

Examples:

• O povo quer paz. = the people, as a collective group, want peace
• As pessoas querem paz. = people want peace
• A gente quer paz. = we want peace / people want peace, depending on context

Because abstract nouns in Portuguese often appear without an article when speaking in a general sense.

So:

• quer paz = wants peace

This is very natural.

You can use the article in some contexts:

• quer a paz = wants the peace, often more specific or stylistically marked

But in this sentence, paz is being used in a broad, general sense, so no article is the most natural choice.

Yes, paz is a feminine noun: a paz.

But grammatical gender does not mean the article must always appear. Portuguese often omits the article with abstract nouns when they are used generally.

So both of these are true:

• the noun is feminine: a paz
• in this sentence, the article is omitted: quer paz

A careful Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation would be approximately:

o PÔ-vo ker paz

A more IPA-style version is roughly: /u ˈpovu kɛʁ pas/

A few useful notes:

• o at the beginning often sounds like u
• povo has stress on the first syllable: PO-vo
• quer in Brazil often has a throat-like r sound at the end
• paz ends with a clear z sound only when followed by a vowel in connected speech? Actually here, at the end of the sentence, it sounds like pas in Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation

Quer is the present indicative form of querer for ele/ela/você.

Here it agrees with o povo, which is singular:

• eu quero
• você/ele/ela quer
• nós queremos
• eles/elas querem

So o povo quer means the people want.

Yes. Deseja comes from desejar, which means to desire or to wish for.

• O povo quer paz. = more direct, common, neutral
• O povo deseja paz. = a bit more formal, elevated, or political

Both are correct, but quer is simpler and more everyday.

Yes, but O povo quer paz is the most neutral and standard order: subject + verb + object.

Other orders are possible for emphasis, style, or rhetoric, for example:

• Paz é o que o povo quer. = Peace is what the people want.
• Quer paz o povo. = very marked, poetic, or rhetorical

For normal speech and writing, O povo quer paz is the best choice.

Put não before the verb:

• O povo não quer paz.

That is the normal way to negate a sentence in Portuguese.

In Brazilian Portuguese, you can usually keep the same word order and just use question intonation:

• O povo quer paz?

In writing, the question mark shows it clearly. In speech, your voice rises like in English yes/no questions.

You do not need to invert the word order.

It is mostly neutral.

• o povo can sound slightly political, civic, or collective depending on context
• quer paz is simple and direct

So the full sentence could fit:

• everyday language
• journalism
• speeches
• political discussion
• historical or social commentary

It is not slang, and it is not especially formal either.