No queremos provocar un conflicto.

In Spanish, the normal way to make a sentence negative is to put no directly before the conjugated verb.

• Queremos provocar un conflicto. = We want to provoke a conflict.
• No queremos provocar un conflicto. = We do not want to provoke a conflict.

So no is the standard negative word here, just like not in English, but its position is different.

Queremos is the present tense, first person plural form of querer.

• querer = to want
• queremos = we want

It is used because the subject is we.

A few present tense forms of querer are:

• quiero = I want
• quieres = you want
• quiere = he/she wants
• queremos = we want
• queréis = you all want (Spain)
• quieren = they/you all want

Spanish often leaves out subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows who the subject is.

• queremos already tells you the subject is we
• so No queremos provocar un conflicto is completely natural

You could say Nosotros no queremos provocar un conflicto, but that adds emphasis, for example:

• Nosotros no queremos provocar un conflicto; ellos sí. = We don’t want to provoke a conflict; they do.

So in most cases, leaving out nosotros is the normal choice.

Because after querer, Spanish usually uses an infinitive when the subject of both verbs is the same.

• queremos = we want
• provocar = to provoke

So:

• No queremos provocar un conflicto = We do not want to provoke a conflict.

This is very similar to English want to + verb, except Spanish does not use a separate word for to here. The infinitive itself does that job.

In Spanish, after verbs like querer, the second verb normally stays in the infinitive with no extra linking word.

• quiero comer = I want to eat
• queremos salir = we want to leave
• no queremos provocar un conflicto = we do not want to provoke a conflict

So although English says want to provoke, Spanish simply says querer provocar.

In this sentence, querer means to want, not to love.

It is true that querer can sometimes express affection, depending on context:

• Te quiero = I love you / I care about you

But when querer is followed by an infinitive, it usually means to want:

• Quiero dormir = I want to sleep
• No queremos provocar un conflicto = We do not want to provoke a conflict

So the structure makes the meaning clear.

Provocar is related to English provoke, but in Spanish it often has a broader everyday use.

Here it means something like:

• to provoke
• to cause
• to trigger
• to bring about

So provocar un conflicto means to provoke/cause a conflict.

In many contexts, provocar sounds natural in Spanish where English might prefer cause rather than provoke.

Because conflicto is a masculine noun, so it takes the masculine singular indefinite article un.

• un conflicto = a conflict

In Spanish, nouns have grammatical gender, and the article must match:

• un libro = a book
• una casa = a house

Here, the ending -o is a clue that the noun is masculine, though that is not always a guaranteed rule in Spanish.

Because conflicto is the direct object of provocar, and Spanish does not use the personal a with things or abstract nouns.

• provocar un conflicto = to provoke a conflict

The personal a is mainly used before specific people (and sometimes animals seen as personal/specific):

• Veo a María. = I see María.
• Queremos ayudar al profesor. = We want to help the teacher.

But conflicto is not a person, so there is no a.

Yes—when the subject changes.

In your sentence, the subject of both verbs is the same:

• we do not want
• we provoke

So Spanish uses querer + infinitive:

• No queremos provocar un conflicto.

But if the second action has a different subject, Spanish usually uses que + subjunctive:

• No queremos que provoques un conflicto. = We do not want you to provoke a conflict.

So:

• same subject → querer + infinitive
• different subject → querer que + subjunctive

Yes, queremos is present tense.

Depending on context, No queremos provocar un conflicto can be translated as:

• We don’t want to provoke a conflict.
• We do not want to cause a conflict.

In context, the present tense can sometimes sound like:

• a current feeling
• a general intention
• a polite statement of position

So it is present tense grammatically, but its exact English wording may vary slightly depending on the situation.