Querer Conjugation: Free Spanish Lesson, Exercises, and PDF

What do you want in life? 

Who do you love? 

What do you want to do?

These are no small questions. Actually, they are some of the biggest questions people can ask themselves. To ask all those questions in Spanish, you need to use the verb querer. 

In this post, we’ll learn the meaning of the Spanish verb querer and the full set of querer conjugations, as well as verbals and transitive verbs. 

The Spanish Verb Querer

Querer is a Spanish verb that means “to want” but also “to love.” However, there exists another verb that translates to English as “to love” and that’s amar, so sometimes this can create confusion. 

For now, let’s focus on querer, which is one of the most commonly used verbs in Spanish. It’s both a transitive and an irregular verb, and we’ll see what that means in a minute. 

By learning to conjugate querer, you’ll be able to express what you want, who you love, and what you want to do in Spanish. 

Querer: A Transitive and Irregular Verb

As mentioned, querer is a transitive verb. This means that it needs a direct object to complete its action. And what is a direct object? I’m glad you asked! Direct objects are nouns or pronouns that the verb acts upon. 

For example, you can’t simply say yo quiero (I want); the idea would be incomplete. You want something, and that something is the direct object. Yo quiero un helado (I want an ice cream). The ice cream is the direct object. 

In other words, you never only quieres, you always quieres algo (want something). 

Now, querer is also an irregular verb. Irregular verbs are those that don’t follow the most common pattern of conjugations in Spanish. This means that querer follows a unique pattern of conjugations, and the only way to learn it is by studying and practicing.

Querer Conjugation

The querer conjugation set is quite varied and has some unique peculiarities. Just to mention a few, it can change from its prefix que- to qui- and, at times, uses a double r as in querr-.

As with every irregular verb conjugation set, learning the conjugation sets of this verb will require a memorization effort followed by a lot of practice. Spanish conjugations tend to become more natural with practice. You might not know them perfectly yet, but with practice you’ll start noticing when a conjugation feels wrong or sounds weird.

Querer Verbals 

The three verbals in Spanish are infinitive, gerund, and participle. Verbals are non-conjugated forms of verbs, and in order to be used in a sentence, they always need another conjugated verb. 

Querer Conjugation: Indicative Mood

To start with the querer conjugation set, we’ll first look at the indicative mood, dividing it into simple and compound tenses. A compound tense is one that includes the auxiliary verb haber (to have). 

Querer Conjugation: Simple Tenses of the Indicative Mood

Querer Conjugation: Compound Tenses of the Indicative Mood

Querer Conjugation: Subjunctive Mood

The next mood of the querer conjugation set is the subjunctive. In Spanish, this mood is used to express hopes, wishes, and desires. 

The imperfect tenses of querer in the subjunctive mood are widely used in Spanish. In these cases, querer can also be translated as “to wish”.

Querer Conjugation: Simple Tenses of the Subjunctive Mood

Querer Conjugation: Compound Tenses of the Subjunctive Mood

Querer Conjugation: Imperative Mood

In Spanish, we use the imperative mood to give orders and commands, which can be affirmative or negative. Because it’s impossible to give an order to yourself or to a third person, this mood has fewer subjects. 

Querer Conjugation: Imperative Mood

Querer Conjugation: Exercises

Fill in the blank using the right conjugation of querer: 

1. Mañana te ______________ aún más. – Tomorrow I’ll love you even more.

2. Karla solo ______________ ayudar. – Karla has just wanted to help. 

3. ¡ _______________ a tu hermana! – Love your sister!

4. ________________ nunca haberme enamorado. – I wish I’d never fallen in love.

5. Diego ________________ un helado. – Diego wanted an ice cream.

6. El que yo te ________________ alguna vez, no significa nada ahora. – That I had ever loved you doesn’t mean anything now.

7. Ella lo ________________ mucho. – She loved him a lot. 

8. Espero  ________________ bailar. – I hope you want to dance.

9. Yo _______________ tener otra oportunidad. – I would have wanted to have another opportunity.

10. _____________ que las cosas cambien. – We want things to change.

Now that you’ve learned every possible querer conjugation, download the PDF and keep practicing!

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Answer Key: 

1. querré
2. ha querido
3. Quiere
4. quisiera
5. quería
6. haya querido
7. quiso
8. quieras
9. habría
10. Queremos

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Luis F. Dominguez

Freelance Writer at Homeschool Spanish Academy

Luis F. Domínguez is a freelance writer and independent journalist interested in travel, languages, art, books, history, philosophy, politics and sports. He has written for Fodor’s, Yahoo!, Sports Illustrated, Telemundo, and Villa Experience, among other brands of print and digital media in Europe and North America.

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