Breakdown of Tenho vontade de ouvir música.
Sign up free — start using our AI language tutor
Start learning PortugueseMaster Portuguese — from Tenho vontade de ouvir música to fluency
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods.
- ✓ Infinitely deep — unlimited vocabulary and grammar
- ✓ Fast-paced — build complex sentences from the start
- ✓ Unforgettable — efficient spaced repetition system
- ✓ AI tutor to answer your grammar questions
More from this lesson
Questions & Answers about Tenho vontade de ouvir música.
Ter vontade de + infinitive is a very common Portuguese pattern meaning to feel like doing something or to have the इच्छा/desire to do something.
So:
- tenho = I have
- vontade = desire / wish / urge / feeling like
- de ouvir = to listen to
Together, Tenho vontade de ouvir música means something like I feel like listening to music.
In Portuguese, subject pronouns are often omitted because the verb ending already shows who the subject is.
- tenho clearly means I have
- so eu is not necessary
You can say:
- Tenho vontade de ouvir música.
- Eu tenho vontade de ouvir música.
Both are correct, but the version without eu is very normal and natural.
Because the expression is ter vontade de + infinitive.
So the structure is:
- ter vontade de fazer algo
- to feel like doing something
Examples:
- Tenho vontade de dormir. = I feel like sleeping.
- Tenho vontade de sair. = I feel like going out.
- Tenho vontade de ouvir música. = I feel like listening to music.
The de belongs to the expression. It is not optional here.
After vontade de, Portuguese uses the infinitive form of the verb.
So:
- ouvir = to listen / to hear
- not ouço
- not ouvindo
This is similar to English to feel like listening, except Portuguese uses the infinitive after de:
- vontade de ouvir
- literally: desire to listen
Both can often mean to hear / to listen, and in many everyday situations they overlap.
In Portugal, ouvir música is extremely common for to listen to music.
A rough distinction is:
- ouvir = to hear / to listen
- escutar = to listen, sometimes with a stronger idea of paying attention
But for music, ouvir música is the most usual choice.
In Portuguese, when speaking generally about music as an activity or category, you often say simply ouvir música.
So:
- ouvir música = to listen to music, in general
- ouvir a música = to listen to the music, a specific piece/song/music already known from context
Examples:
- Gosto de ouvir música. = I like listening to music.
- Quero ouvir a música que me mostraste. = I want to listen to the song/music you showed me.
Not exactly, although they can be close in meaning.
- Quero ouvir música. = I want to listen to music.
- Tenho vontade de ouvir música. = I feel like listening to music.
Tenho vontade de often sounds a bit more like a current mood or urge. Quero can sound more direct and straightforward.
So if you are in the mood for music right now, Tenho vontade de ouvir música is very natural.
Yes. In fact, that is one of the most natural uses of ter vontade de.
It often expresses what you feel like doing at that moment or around that time:
- Hoje tenho vontade de descansar. = Today I feel like resting.
- Agora tenho vontade de ouvir música. = Right now I feel like listening to music.
It can also describe a more general wish, depending on context.
Tenho is the 1st person singular present tense of ter.
The verb ter = to have
Present tense:
- eu tenho = I have
- tu tens = you have
- ele/ela tem = he/she has
- nós temos = we have
- vós tendes = you have (rare in modern speech)
- eles/elas têm = they have
So tenho vontade literally means I have desire.
Yes, vontade is a feminine noun.
That matters when you use articles or adjectives with it:
- a vontade
- muita vontade
- uma grande vontade
Examples:
- Tenho muita vontade de viajar. = I really feel like travelling.
- Ela tem uma grande vontade de aprender. = She has a great desire to learn.
In your sentence, there is no article, so you just see vontade by itself.
Yes. Estar com vontade de + infinitive is also common and natural.
So these are both possible:
- Tenho vontade de ouvir música.
- Estou com vontade de ouvir música.
In everyday use, both can mean I feel like listening to music. Depending on region and style, one may sound more common than the other in certain contexts, but both are perfectly understandable and idiomatic.
In this context, ouvir música normally means to listen to music, not just accidentally hear it.
Even though ouvir can sometimes mean to hear, with música it very naturally means the activity of listening to music.
So a learner should understand:
- ouvir música = to listen to music
not just to happen to hear music.
You put não before the verb:
- Não tenho vontade de ouvir música.
That means:
- I don’t feel like listening to music.
This is the normal way to negate the sentence in Portuguese.