Breakdown of Quer corras, quer rastejes, tens de resistir.
ter de
to have to
correr
to run
quer
whether
resistir
to resist
rastejar
to crawl
Questions & Answers about Quer corras, quer rastejes, tens de resistir.
Why are corras and rastejes in the subjunctive here?
The structure quer... quer... sets up an alternative concessive clause, meaning "whether... or...". It triggers the subjunctive because it presents hypothetical or alternative conditions that may or may not happen, rather than stating a concrete, factual event.
Since quer comes from querer (to want), does this sentence literally mean "want you run, want you crawl"?
Historically, yes, but you shouldn't think of it that way. In modern Portuguese, the paired conjunction quer... quer... is a fixed grammatical expression meaning "whether... or...". It no longer carries the active meaning of "wanting" something.
Could I use ou... ou... (either... or...) instead of quer... quer... here?
They have different meanings and use different moods. Ou corres, ou rastejas uses the indicative and means "Either you run, or you crawl" (forcing a choice). Quer corras, quer rastejes uses the subjunctive and means "Whether you run or crawl" (meaning the final obligation to resist is the same regardless of what you do).
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