Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Eu tive vontade de rir no meio da reunião, mas fiquei calado. - I felt like laughing in the middle of the meeting, but I stayed quiet.

Ter vontade de focuses on a spontaneous feeling or urge, often sudden or not fully under your control.
Querer (as in quis) is more about a conscious, deliberate wish or intention.

Both are correct; tive vontade de rir just sounds more like an involuntary impulse in that moment.

Why is there a de before rir in tive vontade de rir?

In Portuguese, the expression is ter vontade de + infinitive. The preposition de is fixed in this structure.

Some common patterns:

ter vontade de rir – to feel like laughing
ter vontade de chorar – to feel like crying
ter vontade de sair – to feel like going out

You cannot say ter vontade rir; the de is required.

Could I also say Apeteceu-me rir no meio da reunião? Is that the same?

Yes, in European Portuguese you can say:

Apeteceu-me rir no meio da reunião, mas fiquei calado.

This is very natural in Portugal. Nuance:

Apeteceu-me + infinitive is very common in European Portuguese to express a spontaneous urge or desire (physical or emotional).
It is very close in meaning to tive vontade de rir.

Differences in flavour:

tive vontade de rir – slightly more neutral.
apeteceu-me rir – slightly more colloquial, very typical in Portugal.

Both are fine in everyday speech.

What’s the difference between rir and rir-se? Why is it de rir here and not de me rir?

Both forms exist in European Portuguese:

rir – to laugh
rir-se – also to laugh (often rir-se de = to laugh at someone/something)

In this sentence:

ter vontade de rir is the standard, very common collocation for “to feel like laughing”.
You could hear ter vontade de me rir, but it sounds more regional/colloquial and is less standard.

General tendencies in European Portuguese:

rir-se de alguém / de algo – to laugh at someone/something.
- Eles riram-se de mim. – They laughed at me.
rir alone – often used in set expressions, infinitives, or more neutral “laugh” meanings:
- É impossível não rir. – It’s impossible not to laugh.

So ter vontade de rir is exactly the normal way to say “to feel like laughing”.

What does no meio da reunião mean literally, and how is it formed?

Literally, no meio da reunião means “in the middle of the meeting.”

Breaking it down:

em + o = no → no meio = in the middle
de + a = da → da reunião = of the meeting

So:

no meio da reunião = in the middle of the meeting

It indicates a specific point during the meeting, around its midpoint or at some moment inside it.

Could I say durante a reunião or na reunião instead of no meio da reunião? Would it change the meaning?

Yes, but the nuance changes slightly:

no meio da reunião – in the middle of the meeting → suggests a specific moment somewhere around halfway through, or simply right in the middle of it.
durante a reunião – during the meeting → anywhere in that time period, more general.
na reunião – at the meeting / in the meeting → also general, just that it happened at some point during that event.

So:

Eu tive vontade de rir no meio da reunião emphasizes that it happened right in the thick of it, not just at any random moment.

What exactly does fiquei calado mean? Is it “I became quiet” or “I stayed quiet”?

Ficar + adjective can mean both “to become” and “to remain/stay”, depending on context.

Here, fiquei calado means something like:

I stayed quiet / I kept silent / I remained quiet.

Implication:

There was a temptation to do something (laugh), but the result was that you remained silent.
It can also carry the idea that you chose to stay that way.

Other possibilities with small nuances:

mas estive calado – I was quiet (more descriptive, less about the decision/result).
mas calei-me – I kept my mouth shut / I shut up (slightly stronger, more active action of not speaking).

Why is it calado and not calada? Does it change with gender?

Yes, calado agrees in gender and number with the subject:

Eu fiquei calado. – I (male) stayed quiet.
Eu fiquei calada. – I (female) stayed quiet.
Nós ficámos calados. – We stayed quiet (group of men or mixed group).
Nós ficámos caladas. – We stayed quiet (group of women).

In your sentence, calado shows that the speaker is male (or grammatically masculine).

Do I really need the Eu at the beginning, or can I just say Tive vontade de rir…?

You can absolutely drop Eu:

Tive vontade de rir no meio da reunião, mas fiquei calado.

In Portuguese (especially in European Portuguese), subject pronouns are often omitted because the verb ending already shows the person:

tive, fiquei → clearly first person singular.

Using Eu:

Adds emphasis or contrast (e.g., Eu tive vontade de rir, mas eles não).
Sounds a bit more marked; not wrong, just a bit more “pointed.”

In neutral speech, many speakers would simply say it without Eu.

Why is the tense tive (pretérito perfeito) and not tinha (pretérito imperfeito)?

Tive (from ter) is the pretérito perfeito → a completed event at a specific time.

Eu tive vontade de rir = At one particular moment, I suddenly felt like laughing.

Tinha is the pretérito imperfeito → ongoing, repeated, or background state.

Eu tinha vontade de rir durante toda a reunião.
I felt like laughing throughout the whole meeting (ongoing state).

In your sentence, the speaker refers to a specific impulse at a specific moment, so tive is the natural choice.

Could I say mas fiquei em silêncio instead of mas fiquei calado?

Yes:

…mas fiquei calado. – but I stayed quiet / I didn’t say anything.
…mas fiquei em silêncio. – but I remained in silence.

Nuance:

calado is more everyday, informal/neutral, very common in speech.
em silêncio is a bit more formal or literary-sounding.

Both convey that you didn’t speak.

Does this sentence work the same in Brazilian Portuguese, or is it different?

The sentence is perfectly understandable in Brazilian Portuguese, but some alternatives are more typical there:

European Portuguese (very natural):

Tive vontade de rir no meio da reunião, mas fiquei calado.

In Brazil, you might more often hear:

Fiquei com vontade de rir no meio da reunião, mas fiquei calado.
Deu vontade de rir no meio da reunião, mas eu fiquei calado.

The second clause mas fiquei calado is fine in both varieties. The main difference is the expression of “felt like”:

Portugal: tive vontade de, apeteceu-me
Brazil: fiquei com vontade de, deu vontade de

Is the word order fixed, or can I move parts around, like No meio da reunião tive vontade de rir…?

You can move elements around quite freely in Portuguese, especially time and place expressions. All of these are grammatical, with small changes in emphasis:

Tive vontade de rir no meio da reunião, mas fiquei calado.
No meio da reunião, tive vontade de rir, mas fiquei calado.
Tive, no meio da reunião, vontade de rir, mas fiquei calado. (more marked/emphatic)

Placing no meio da reunião at the start slightly emphasizes the setting: “In the middle of the meeting, I felt like laughing …”