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Wanting a Spanish verb
The Spanish verb querer has two distinct meanings in most tenses and moods, plus two more in the préterito. It’s stem-changing in the present tense and irregular just about everywhere else.
Querer = to want
| Quiero ser médico. | I want to be a doctor. | |
| Quiere más dinero. | He wants more money. |
Querer = to love
| ¿Me quieres? | Do you love me? | |
| ¡Quiero a mis perros! | I love my dogs! |
Querer + another verb
Semi-auxiliary verb: querer plus the infinitive (no preposition in between).
| Quiero ir. | I want to leave. | |
| Queremos comer. | We want to eat. |
Main clause verb: querer que must be followed by the subjunctive.
| Quiero que te vayas. | I want you to leave. | |
| Queremos que se lo coman. | We want them to eat it.. |
Querer in the conditional
You can use querer in the conditional to soften a request:
| Querría un bocadillo. | I’d like a sandwich. | |
| Querríamos dos cafés. | We’d like two coffees, please. |
Querer in the pretérito
In the imperfect, querer keeps its normal meanings of "to want" or "to love," but it has different meanings in the pretérito.
Affirmative: to try to
| Quise terminar el proyecto. | I tried to finish the project. | |
| ¿Quisiste salir antes? | Did you try to leave early? |
Negative: to refuse to
| No quise terminar el proyecto. | I refused to finish the project. | |
| No quiso leer. | He refused to read. |
More examples: Querer in pretérito vs imperfecto
Querer in action
Related lessons
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