Spanish Verb Querer Conjugation

The Spanish verb querer is a common verb that means "to want," "to wish," "to love" or "to like," and its conjugation is highly irregular. Both its stem and endings often depart from the norm in unpredictable ways. This article includes querer conjugations in the present, past, conditional and future indicative, the present and past subjunctive, the imperative, and other verb forms.

There are only three verbs that are conjugated in the same way as querer, and all three are derived from it: bienquerer (to like or be fond of), desquerer (to cease wanting or loving) and malquerer (to dislike). None of them are particularly common.

Using the Verb Querer

The verb querer can be translated to English in several different ways. The most common meaning is "to want" or "to wish," as in El niño quiere muchos regalos para su cumpleaños (The boy wants a lot of presents for his birthday), or Ella quiere que todos los niños sean felices (She wishes for all children to be happy).

When used with people (or pets), the verb querer can also mean "to love." Although the verb amar means to love, it is often used in more profound or romantic relationships. You can use the verb querer as in Quiero mucho a mi mejor amigo (I really love my best friend) or La niña quiere a sus maestros (The girl loves her teachers). In the last example, querer has a connotation of "to appreciate" more than "to love." Also, notice that when used in this way with people or pets, the personal a is always used before the direct object.

Querer Present Indicative

In the present indicative tense, the verb querer is stem-changing. This means that the e in the stem of the verb changes to ie when part of a stressed syllable.

Querer Preterite Indicative

In the preterite tense, querer is irregular, since the stem changes to quis-. The preterite is used to talk about completed actions in the past. When using the verb querer in the preterite, it has the meaning of something that someone wanted but did not obtain. For example, Quise ir a la fiesta means "I wanted to go to the party but I ended up not being able to go."

Querer Imperfect Indicative

The imperfect tense conjugation of querer is regular. You start with the stem quer- and add the imperfect ending for -er verbs (ía, ías, ía, íamos, íais, ían). In the imperfect tense the verb querer usually means "wanted," but can also be translated as "was wanting" or "used to want." The imperfect is used to talk about ongoing actions in the past. With the verb querer it means that someone wanted something, but we don't know if they obtained it or not.

Querer Future Indicative

To conjugate the future tense you start with the infinitive (querer) and add the future tense endings (é, ás, á, emos, áis, án). However, the verb querer is irregular because there is an extra r in the stem, so it ends up being querr-.

Querer Periphrastic Future Indicative 

The periphrastic future is formed with the present indicative conjugation of the verb ir (to go), the preposition a, and the infinitive querer.

Querer Present Progressive/Gerund Form

The gerund or present participle for the verb querer is formed regularly, by starting with stem of the verb quer- and the ending the ending -iendo (for -er and -ir verbs). The present participle can be used to form progressive tenses like the present progressive, which usually requires the auxiliary verb estar. However, it is rare to use the verb querer in progressive tenses, since "to want" already implies an ongoing action. Therefore, it sounds redundant to say está queriendo (is wanting) and it is simpler to say quiere (wants). The form queriendo is more commonly used as an adverb, as in Queriendo ayudar, hicimos un gran esfuerzo (Wanting to help, we made a great effort).

Querer Past Participle

The past participle is formed with the stem quer- plus the ending -ido. It can be used to form perfect tenses, such as the present perfect. The present perfect is formed with the auxiliary verb haber and the past participle querido.

Querer Conditional Indicative

The conditional tense is usually translated to English as "would + verb." Similar to the future tense, it is conjugated by starting with the infinitive form. However, just like in the future tense, the verb querer is irregular because it has an extra r, so it uses the stem querr-.

Querer Present Subjunctive

The present subjunctive is used for subjective situations like desires, doubts and recommendations. It is formed starting with the first person singular present indicative conjugation (yo). It is also stem-changing (e to ie) when the e falls on the stressed syllable.

Querer Imperfect Subjunctive

There are two options for conjugating the imperfect subjunctive.

Option 1

Option 2

Querer Imperative

The imperative mood is used to give orders or commands. It is not common to use commands with the verb querer, because usually you don't tell people to want something. However, it is possible that you would tell someone to love someone else, which is one of the meanings of the verb querer. Therefore, the examples below were changed to show more realistic situations of querer in the imperative.

Positive Commands

Negative Commands