Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Eu quero rever o plano antes do exame. - I want to review the plan before the exam.

In Portuguese, subject pronouns (eu, tu, ele, nós, etc.) are often omitted because the verb ending already shows who the subject is.
Eu quero is 1st person singular; the -o ending in quero already tells you it’s “I”.

Using eu here:

Adds a bit of emphasis on I (e.g. I want to review the plan…).
Sounds slightly more explicit and careful, but not more “correct”.

Both versions are grammatically correct and natural in European Portuguese.

What exactly does rever mean here, and how is it different from ver de novo or estudar?

Rever literally means “to see again”, but in this context it means “to review / to go over again” (often with a purpose, like revising material).

rever o plano – to go through the plan again, check it, revise it.
ver o plano de novo – to see the plan again; can be similar, but doesn’t always carry the same “study/review” idea.
estudar o plano – to study the plan (focus more on learning it, understanding it deeply).

So:

Before an exam, rever is very idiomatic: rever a matéria / rever o plano = review, revise.
rever is more compact and natural than ver de novo in this context.

Why is the infinitive rever used after quero? Could it be conjugated instead?

After querer (to want), Portuguese normally uses the infinitive:

Eu quero rever o plano. – I want to review the plan.
Ela quer estudar mais. – She wants to study more.

You don’t conjugate the second verb in this structure:

❌ Eu quero revejo o plano.
✅ Eu quero rever o plano.

So the pattern is:

[conjugated form of querer] + [infinitive]
quero rever, queres sair, queremos estudar, etc.

Why is it o plano and not just plano without the article?

Portuguese uses definite articles (o, a, os, as) more often than English.

o plano = “the plan” (a specific plan that both speaker and listener know about).
Saying just plano (without o) is usually either:
- part of an expression (e.g. em plano geral – in general terms), or
- after certain verbs/prepositions in specific idioms.

In this sentence, o plano:

Refers to a definite, identified plan (for example, a study plan, a treatment plan, a project plan).
Is the normal, natural way to say it.

So rever o plano = “review the (known) plan”.

Why is it antes do exame and not antes de o exame? What is do exactly?

do is a contraction of de + o.

antes de = before
antes de + o exame → antes do exame

Portuguese almost always contracts de + o this way:

de + o → do
de + a → da
de + os → dos
de + as → das

So:

antes do exame = before the exam
antes da aula = before the class
antes dos testes = before the tests

Do I always have to say antes de or antes do? When would I use just antes?

In this sentence, you need the de:

antes do exame – before the exam
The core preposition is antes de.

Patterns:

antes de + noun (with contraction):
- antes do exame – before the exam
- antes da reunião – before the meeting
antes de + infinitive:
- antes de estudar – before studying
- antes de sair – before leaving

You can use antes alone usually only:

As an adverb meaning “earlier/before” in time, not followed by a noun or verb:
- Cheguei antes. – I arrived earlier / I arrived before (someone, context understood).

In your sentence, antes do exame is the required structure.

Could I say Eu vou rever o plano antes do exame instead of Eu quero rever…? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say Eu vou rever o plano antes do exame, but it changes the meaning slightly:

Eu quero rever o plano – I want to review the plan.
- Focus on desire/intention. You want to, but it’s not necessarily scheduled.
Eu vou rever o plano – I’m going to review the plan.
- Focus on a planned future action; it sounds more like a decision or arrangement.

Both are in the present tense, but:

quero + infinitive expresses want/intention.
vou + infinitive often expresses a near or planned future, similar to English “going to”.

Why is the verb quero in the present tense if this is about something that will happen in the future (before the exam)?

Portuguese often uses the present tense for:

Current desires and intentions that concern the future.

In Eu quero rever o plano antes do exame:

quero = “I want (now)”
The reviewing will happen later, but the wanting is now.

English does the same in many cases:

“I want to see that film tomorrow.” (present “want”, future action)

If you want to highlight the future a bit more:

Vou rever o plano antes do exame. – I’m going to review the plan before the exam.
But Quero rever… is perfectly natural when you’re stating your wish/intention.

Is plano masculine just because it uses o? How do I know its gender?

Here, o plano shows that plano is a masculine noun. In Portuguese, noun gender is mostly lexical (you have to learn it with the word), but there are helpful tendencies:

Many nouns ending in -o are masculine: o plano, o livro, o carro.
Many ending in -a are feminine: a mesa, a casa, a prova.

There are exceptions, but plano follows the common pattern:

o plano (masculine singular)
os planos (masculine plural)

If I wanted to replace o plano with a pronoun, where would it go? Is it Eu quero o rever? Eu quero rever-o?

In modern European Portuguese, the most natural replacement here is:

Eu quero revê-lo antes do exame. – I want to review it before the exam.

Key points:

The direct object pronoun for a masculine singular thing (like o plano) is o.
After an infinitive ending in -r, the -r drops and the pronoun attaches with a hyphen:
- rever + o → revê-lo (note the accent to keep the stress).
So:
- ✅ Quero revê-lo antes do exame.
- ❌ Quero o rever (technically possible in some formal registers but sounds stiff/archaic in everyday EP).
- ❌ Quero rever-o (incorrect spelling).

Spoken European Portuguese very often keeps the noun (rever o plano) because it’s clearer, but revê-lo is correct and common in careful speech and writing.