Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Hoje eu quero ficar fora de casa.

Hoje quero ficar fora de casa. – perfectly correct and very natural.
Hoje eu quero ficar fora de casa. – also correct, but eu adds a slight emphasis on I (as in I want to stay out of the house, maybe not someone else).

So eu is optional here and mainly used for emphasis or clarity in context.

Why is ficar used here instead of estar or ser for “to be / to stay”?

In this sentence, ficar means to stay / to remain in a place or situation.

ficar – to stay, to remain, to end up
- Quero ficar fora de casa. – I want to stay out of the house.
estar – to be (temporary states, locations)
- Quero estar fora de casa. – grammatically possible, but it sounds more like “I want to be outside the house (at that time)”, not so much “stay” there.
ser – to be (permanent characteristics, identity)
- Ser would be wrong here: you can’t say quero ser fora de casa.

For “stay (somewhere)”, the natural verb is ficar, especially when you’re talking about remaining in a place for some period of time.

What exactly does ficar fora de casa mean? Is it like “stay outside the house” or more like “stay away from home”?

Ficar fora de casa is usually understood as “stay away from home” or “not be at home”, rather than literally standing outside the front door.

It can mean spending the day outside (in town, at a friend’s place, at the beach, etc.).
Context decides whether it’s physical “outside the building” or just “not at home”, but most of the time it’s the broader “away from home”.

If you wanted to emphasise physically being outside the building itself, you might say something more specific, like ficar lá fora (stay out there / stay outside).

Why is it fora de casa and not fora da casa?

This is a subtle but important distinction:

fora de casa – outside home / away from home in a general sense
- casa has no article; it’s more like the concept of home.
fora da casa – outside the (specific) house
- da = de + a (of/from + the) → “of the house”.
- This refers to a particular house as a physical building.

So:

Hoje eu quero ficar fora de casa.
→ I don’t want to be at home today.
Ele está fora da casa.
→ He is outside the house (not inside the building).

Using de casa (without the article) is the normal way to talk about home in general.

What’s the difference between ficar fora de casa and ficar em casa?

They are opposites:

ficar em casa – to stay at home / stay in
- Hoje quero ficar em casa. – Today I want to stay at home.
ficar fora de casa – to stay away from home / be out
- Hoje quero ficar fora de casa. – Today I want to be out, not at home.

So em casa is at home, and fora de casa is not at home.

Can I change the word order, for example Eu hoje quero ficar fora de casa or Quero hoje ficar fora de casa?

Yes, Portuguese allows some flexibility in word order, though not all options feel equally natural.

Common and natural options:

Hoje eu quero ficar fora de casa. – Very natural, neutral.
Hoje quero ficar fora de casa. – Very natural, slightly more concise.
Eu hoje quero ficar fora de casa. – Also possible; slight emphasis on eu.

Less common / a bit marked:

Quero hoje ficar fora de casa. – Grammatically correct, but sounds more formal or slightly unusual in everyday speech.
Quero ficar hoje fora de casa. – Also possible, but the focus shifts more onto hoje in the middle; it’s not the most neutral version.

The most typical everyday choices would be:

Hoje quero ficar fora de casa.
Hoje eu quero ficar fora de casa.

Why is quero in the present tense if I’m talking about something in the (rest of) today? Shouldn’t it be a future tense?

Portuguese often uses the present tense for:

current desires / intentions that affect the present or near future.

Hoje eu quero ficar fora de casa. literally is “Today I want to stay out of the house.”
In English we also say I want to stay… (present) even if the actual staying happens later in the day.

Using a future like quererei (I will want) would sound unnatural here. The present tense quero is the normal way to express a wish or plan about today.

Is Hoje eu quero ficar fora de casa natural in European Portuguese? Are there other common ways to say this?

Yes, Hoje eu quero ficar fora de casa is completely natural in European Portuguese.

Other very natural variants, depending on nuance:

Hoje quero passar o dia fora de casa.
– Today I want to spend the day away from home. (more specific: the whole day)
Hoje não me apetece ficar em casa. Quero ficar fora de casa.
– Today I don’t feel like staying home. I want to be out.
Hoje quero andar por aí, fora de casa.
– Today I want to be out and about, away from home.

All of these would sound normal in Portugal, with slightly different shades of meaning.

How do you pronounce the words in this sentence in European Portuguese?

Approximate IPA and an English-style guide:

Hoje – /ˈo.ʒɨ/
- OH-zhih (the j is like the s in measure).
eu – /ew/
- like English “ehw”, one syllable: close to “eh-oo” quickly joined.
quero – /ˈkɛ.ɾu/
- KEH-roo (short e as in bed, tapped r).
ficar – /fiˈkaɾ/
- fee-KAR (stress on -car, tapped r at the end).
fora – /ˈfɔ.ɾɐ/
- FOH-rah (open o, and the final a is reduced, almost like uh).
de – /dɨ/
- very reduced, like d
  - a very short “ih/uh”* sound.
casa – /ˈka.zɐ/
- KAH-zuh (again with a reduced final vowel).

Spoken naturally, many vowels are reduced and syllables flow together:
Hoje eu quero ficar fora de casa → /ˈo.ʒɨ ew ˈkɛ.ɾu fiˈkaɾ ˈfɔ.ɾɐ dɨ ˈka.zɐ/.