Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Eu não quero sair de casa hoje.

you want to emphasize the subject:
Eu não quero sair de casa hoje (but someone else might).
there could be ambiguity about who the subject is in a longer context.

So: both are correct; Portuguese speakers in Portugal very often say Não quero sair de casa hoje.

Why is não before quero? Can it go anywhere else?

In Portuguese, the basic rule is:

não + conjugated verb

So:

Eu não quero sair de casa hoje. – standard word order

Não normally goes immediately before the conjugated verb (here, quero). You cannot move não to the end of the sentence like English “I want not to leave” or “…not”.

With object pronouns, não still stays before the verb:

Eu não o quero ver. – I don’t want to see him/it.
Eu não quero vê‑lo. – same meaning, pronoun attached to infinitive

But you would not say: Eu quero não sair de casa hoje in normal speech; that sounds forced or overly logical. It would only be used in very specific, contrastive contexts (e.g. a logical list: “I want to stay, I want not to leave”), and even then it’s unusual.

Why is it quero and not quer?

Because querer (to want) is irregular in the present tense. The relevant forms are:

eu quero – I want
tu queres – you (singular, informal) want
ele / ela / você quer – he/she/you (formal) want(s)
nós queremos – we want
vocês / eles / elas querem – you (plural) / they want

Quero is specifically the first person singular (eu).
Quer corresponds to ele/ela/você (he / she / you-formal).

So if you say:

Eu quer sair de casa hoje – this is wrong (eu with the third‑person form).
Ele não quer sair de casa hoje. – correct for “He doesn’t want to leave the house today.”

What does sair de casa literally mean, and is it idiomatic?

Literally:

sair = to go out / to leave
de = from / of
casa = house / home

So sair de casa is literally “to leave from house”, but idiomatically it means “to leave (one’s) home / to go out”.

In everyday European Portuguese:

sair de casa is the standard, natural way to say “leave home / go out (from home)”.
Just sair can also work in context (e.g. Hoje não quero sair. – I don’t want to go out today), but sair de casa specifically emphasizes leaving home as the starting point.

So Eu não quero sair de casa hoje. is completely idiomatic.

Why is it de casa and not da casa?

De + a (feminine singular article) normally contracts to da:

de + a casa → da casa

However, when casa means “home” in a general, personal sense, Portuguese often drops the article:

em casa – at home
para casa – (going) home
de casa – from home

So:

sair de casa – to leave home (your home, in general)
sair da casa – to leave the house (a specific house, as a building)

Sair da casa is used when:

you specify which house:
sair da casa do João – leave João’s house
you’re focusing on the physical building, not the idea of “home”.

In your sentence, you mean “I don’t want to leave home today”, so de casa (no article) is the natural choice.

Can I move hoje? For example: Hoje não quero sair de casa or Eu não quero hoje sair de casa?

Yes, hoje (today) is quite flexible. All of these are possible, with small differences in emphasis:

Eu não quero sair de casa hoje.
– Neutral, very natural; hoje at the end is common.
Hoje não quero sair de casa.
– Also very natural; putting hoje first gives it more emphasis:
“As for today, I don’t want to leave the house.”
Hoje eu não quero sair de casa.
– Similar to (2); eu makes the subject more explicit:
“Today I don’t want to leave the house.” (maybe others do)
Eu não quero hoje sair de casa.
– Grammatically correct but sounds more formal or marked; the placement of hoje between verbs is less common in everyday speech.

In European Portuguese, (1), (2), and (3) are the natural everyday choices, with slight changes in what you’re emphasizing.

What’s the nuance difference between Eu não quero sair de casa hoje and Hoje não me apetece sair de casa?

Both can translate as “I don’t feel like going out today”, but there is a nuance:

Eu não quero sair de casa hoje.
Literally: I don’t want to leave the house today.
- Focus on will / decision: you’ve decided you don’t want to.
- Slightly more direct; can sound a bit firm: “I don’t want to.”
Hoje não me apetece sair de casa.
Literally: Today it doesn’t appeal to me to leave the house.
- Uses apetecer, very common in European Portuguese to talk about inclination, mood, appetite.
- Softer, more about your feeling than a firm decision.
- Sounds very natural and idiomatic in Portugal for “I don’t feel like going out today.”

So in everyday Portugal Portuguese, people often prefer Não me apetece sair de casa hoje to express mood/lack of desire politely.

How would I say “I didn’t want to leave the house today” in Portuguese (Portugal), and is it very different?

A common version is:

Eu não queria sair de casa hoje.

Here:

queria is the pretérito imperfeito of querer.
It often expresses:
- a past state or intention (I didn’t want to…),
- or even a softened present wish in some contexts (like “I would like”), but here, with hoje, it’s clearly past.

Possible contexts:

You’re talking at the end of the day:
Eu não queria sair de casa hoje, mas tive de ir trabalhar.
I didn’t want to leave the house today, but I had to go to work.

You could also say:

Eu não quis sair de casa hoje.

Não quis (pretérito perfeito) sounds more like a completed refusal: you chose not to and stuck to it.
Não queria can sound a bit softer, more about your state of mind.

How do you pronounce Eu não quero sair de casa hoje in European Portuguese?

In a fairly careful European Portuguese pronunciation, you might hear something like:

Eu não quero sair de casa hoje.
/eu nɐ̃w̃ ˈkɛɾu sɐˈiɾ dɨ ˈkazɐ ˈoʒɨ/

Some points:

Eu – /eu/, often quite fast, almost like one syllable.
não – nasal vowel /ɐ̃w̃/, similar to “nown” but nasal.
quero – /ˈkɛɾu/ (or /ˈkɛɾo/ depending on accent); r is a single flap, like Spanish pero.
sair – /sɐˈiɾ/; two syllables: sa‑IR.
de – usually reduced to /dɨ/ in European Portuguese, very short.
casa – /ˈkazɐ/; final a reduced to /ɐ/, not a full “ah”.
hoje – /ˈoʒɨ/; the j is like the s in measure.

In normal speech, words link together and some vowels get very reduced, so it may sound quite compact and fast.

Is this sentence the same in Brazilian Portuguese, or would Brazilians say it differently?

Grammatically, it’s the same sentence and completely correct in Brazil:

Eu não quero sair de casa hoje.

Main differences are in pronunciation:

de is often pronounced /dʒi/ in Brazil, not reduced to /dɨ/.
Final vowels like in casa and hoje are usually more open and clear:
- casa ≈ /ˈkazɐ/ or /ˈkazɐ̠/ but sounds more like a full “a” than in Portugal.
- hoje ≈ /ˈoʒi/.

In terms of wording, Brazilians also often use querer like this. For “I don’t feel like going out today”, they might also say:

Hoje eu não estou com vontade de sair de casa.

But Eu não quero sair de casa hoje is fully natural in both European and Brazilian Portuguese.