Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Ela quer mudar de profissão.

If you said mudar da profissão, it would mean something like “change from the profession,” referring to one specific, previously mentioned profession. Even then, you’d normally continue the sentence:

Ela quer mudar da profissão de professora para a de médica.
(She wants to change from the profession of teacher to that of doctor.)

In everyday speech for the simple idea “she wants to change profession,” mudar de profissão (without an article) is the natural expression.

Why is mudar in the infinitive form after quer?

In Portuguese, when you use querer to talk about wanting to do something, it’s followed by the infinitive of the main verb:

Ela quer mudar – She wants to change
Eu quero comer – I want to eat
Nós queremos viajar – We want to travel

So mudar is in the infinitive (the base form) because it depends on quer.

The structure is:

[subject] + quer + [infinitive verb]

In this sentence:

Ela (she) – subject
quer (wants) – main verb
mudar (to change) – infinitive verb of what she wants to do

Could you say Ela quer mudar a profissão? What would that mean?

You could say Ela quer mudar a profissão, but it would normally mean something different:

Ela quer mudar de profissão.
→ She wants to change her profession (switch careers).
Ela quer mudar a profissão.
→ She wants to change the profession itself (e.g. reform it, modify how that profession works, change its rules).

So:

mudar de profissão = change which job/career she has
mudar a profissão = change the nature of that profession

For everyday “she wants to change career,” always use mudar de profissão.

Why do we say profissão here and not trabalho or emprego?

All three relate to work, but they’re not the same:

profissão – profession, career, line of work
- More about your overall occupation: teacher, doctor, engineer.
emprego – job, post, position (usually salaried)
- A specific job you hold: a position at a company.
trabalho – work, job (very general)
- Can mean work as an activity or a job in a broad sense.

mudar de profissão = change what kind of professional you are (e.g. from designer to nurse).

If you said:

mudar de emprego = change your job / change employer
mudar de trabalho = a bit vaguer; could be changing job or work area, depending on context.

In this sentence, profissão emphasizes career rather than just changing employer.

Do you always need to say Ela, or can you just say Quer mudar de profissão?

In European Portuguese, it’s very common to omit the subject pronoun when it’s clear from context or from the verb ending.

So both are possible:

Ela quer mudar de profissão.
Quer mudar de profissão.

Without context, Quer mudar de profissão could mean he, she, or you (formal), because quer is the same form for all three. In a real conversation, context usually makes it clear.

Including Ela:

Emphasizes that she (not someone else) wants this
Avoids ambiguity in written text or out-of-context sentences

How would this sentence change if the subject was I or we?

You only change the form of querer. The rest stays the same.

Eu quero mudar de profissão. – I want to change profession.
Nós queremos mudar de profissão. – We want to change profession.

Pattern:
[eu/nós/etc.] + querer (conjugated) + mudar de profissão

How do you pronounce quer and profissão in European Portuguese?

Approximate European Portuguese pronunciation (not exact IPA, just a guide):

quer – roughly like “kehrr”
- Short e as in bed
- Final r is often soft/weak or almost not pronounced in many European accents.
profissão – roughly like “pru-fee-SOWNG”
- pro-: more like “pru” (the o tends to sound like a reduced u)
- -fi-: fee
- -ssão: nasal syllable like sown but with nasalization; you don’t fully pronounce an n sound at the end.

European Portuguese generally reduces unstressed vowels more than Brazilian Portuguese, so it can sound more “closed” or “mumbled” to English ears.

Is there any difference between Portugal and Brazil in this sentence?

Grammatically, Ela quer mudar de profissão. is correct and natural in both European and Brazilian Portuguese.

Differences you might notice:

Pronunciation:
- In Brazil, vowels are usually more open and clear; final r in quer may sound more like the English r.
- In Portugal, vowels are more reduced; final r in quer often very soft or almost absent.
Usage:
- The expression mudar de profissão is standard and common in both varieties.

So the same written sentence works fine in both, with the main difference being accent.

Can I say Ela quer trocar de profissão instead of mudar de profissão?

Yes, you can, and it’s understandable:

mudar de profissão – change profession
trocar de profissão – swap/change profession

In this context, mudar de profissão is more neutral and common.
Trocar de profissão sounds a bit more like “switch professions,” but the meaning is basically the same.

If you’re unsure, mudar de profissão is the safest and most usual choice.

Is profissão feminine, and does that affect anything in the sentence?

Yes, profissão is a feminine noun (you can see it by the -ão ending that often becomes -ões in the plural: profissões).

In this specific sentence, there’s no article (a profissão) or adjective, so you don’t see agreement changes.

But in other contexts you would:

a profissão – the profession
boa profissão – good profession
profissão interessante – interesting profession

All these words (a, boa, interessante) would be in the feminine form to agree with profissão.

Could the sentence mean “She wants to change someone else’s profession”?

By itself, Ela quer mudar de profissão strongly suggests her own profession.

To talk about changing someone else’s profession, you would usually phrase it differently:

Ela quer mudar a profissão dele/dela. – She wants to change his/her profession.
Ela quer que ele mude de profissão. – She wants him to change profession.

So:

Ela quer mudar de profissão.
→ She wants to change her own profession.

The reflexive/possessive idea (her own) is implied, not stated explicitly.