The Spanish Verb Querer

The Spanish verb querer means to want or to love. Using querer referring to people implies to love them, as in the phrase te quiero (I love you). In the rest of the cases, it is used to express a wish or desire. For example, tú quieres información (you want information) or ellos quieren trabajar (they want to work).

In this article, we are going to practice the conjugation of the Spanish verb querer.

As you know, any Spanish verb conjugation has two groups: simple tenses and compound tenses. Simple tenses consist of a single word (the main verb), while compound tenses consist of two words (haber + the past participle of the main verb). So we are going to focus on the simple tenses since you will only need the past participle to create compound ones.

Now let’s see the conjugation of querer with example sentences.

The Spanish Verb Querer in Indicative

You will see the verb querer is a bit different from the general rule. Let’s have a look at how querer is conjugated in the Indicative mood.

	Present	Preterite	Imperfect	Future	Conditional
yo tú él nosotros vosotros ellos	quiero quieres quiere queremos queréis quieren	quise quisiste quiso quisimos quisisteis quisieron	quería querías quería queríamos queríais querían	querré querrás querrá querremos querréis querrán	querría querrías querría querríamos querríais querrían

Indicative

Yo quiero aprender español.

I want to learn Spanish.

Marta, ¿quisiste comer ensalada ayer?

Marta, did you want to eat salad yesterday?

El niño quería esconder los juguetes rotos.

The boy wanted to hide the broken toys.

Nosotros querremos bailar contigo en la fiesta mañana.

We will want to dance with you at the party tomorrow.

Ellos querrían tener un palacio, pero son pobres.

They would like to have a palace, but they are poor.

The Spanish Verb Querer in Subjunctive

You will find the same stem changes in the subjunctive conjugations. As you can see, the Imperfect has two forms in subjunctive. You can use any of them since both are correct. Let’s have a look at how querer is conjugated in the Subjunctive mood.

	Present	Imperfect (1)	Imperfect (2)	Future
yo tú él nosotros vosotros ellos	quiera quieras quiera queramos queráis quieran	quisiera quisieras quisiera quisiéramos quisierais quisieran	quisiese quisieses quisiese quisiésemos quisieseis quisiesen	quisiere quisieres quisiere quisiéremos quisiereis quisieren

Subjunctive

Dudo que este cliente quiera comprar algo ahora.

I doubt this customer wants to buy anything now.

Me sorprendió que Elena quisiera cantar ayer.

Me sorprendió que Elena quisiese cantar ayer.

I was surprised Elena wanted to sing yesterday.

Nowadays the Future subjunctive forms are not very often used. These forms are only seen in administrative or legal documents and in some set phrases.

The Spanish Verb Querer in Imperative

In Spanish, negative commands are done using the Present subjunctive forms. Simply say no + present subjunctive to form a negative command. Don’t worry if you are still not familiar with the subjunctive mood. A trick to help you remember their forms is that you need to switch the endings of the –ar verbs conjugation with the –er and –ir conjugations. Let’s have a look at how querer is conjugated in the Imperative mood.

	Affirmative	Negative
tú usted vosotros, vosotras ustedes	quiere quiera quered quieran	no quieras no quiera no queráis no quieran

Imperative

Miguel, quiere a tu hermana que va a nacer en unos días.

Miguel, love your sister who’ll be born in a few days.

No quieras cambiar de canal. Dentro de unos minutos comenzará el concurso.

Don’t want to change the channel. In some minutes, the game show will start.

The Spanish Verb Querer: Non-Finite Forms

The Spanish non-finite forms are the infinitive (infinitivo), the gerund (gerundio) and the past participle (participio), which is used to create the compound verb tenses.

	Non-Finite
infinitive gerund past participle	querer queriendo querido

Non-finite verb forms

No estoy seguro de querer carne. Preferiría comer pescado.

I’m not sure I want meat. I’d prefer fish.

Yo he querido ver esta película desde niña.

I have wanted to watch this movie since I was a little girl.

Hoy te visitaré, lo prometo. Llevo queriendo visitarte meses.

I’ll visit you today, I promise. I’ve been wanting to visit you for months.

As a curious fact, querido is also an adjective or a noun that means darling.

Exercises

Let’s practice the forms of the Spanish verb querer.

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

Exercise 3

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Verbs Grammar Verb Querer

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