Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Menu
Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Querer is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to want”.
Below are all of the conjugations for querer in Spanish, in all three moods (indicative/indicativo, subjunctive/subjunctivo and imperative/imperativo) and all of the tenses, for each pronoun.
The vosotros pronoun is mainly used in mainland Spain, and is the informal second-person plural – it could be considered the Spanish version of “y’all”. It is rarely found in Latin America, where ustedes is used instead.
The vos form is used instead of tú in some Spanish speaking countries of South America, especially the Southern Cone (e.g. Argentina and Uruguay) and has a different conjugation.
| English Infinitive | to want |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | querer |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está queriendo) and past continuous (estaba queriendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. wanting).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he querido and hubiera querido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have wanted).
| Gerundio / Gerund | queriendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | querido |
The basic form of speech, el indicativo is used for making statements, talking about facts, events and things that are certain and objective.
The present tense is as it sounds – it’s for talking about things that are currently going on, which are habitual, or which generally exist. In English, this would be “I want” or “they want”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | quiero |
| Tú | quieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | quiere |
| Nosotros / as | queremos |
| Vosotros / as | queréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | quieren |
| Vos | querés |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I wanted” or “she wanted” in English.
In Spanish, there are two past tenses where just one is used in English; the pretérite infefinido is typically used to refer to a concrete, specific moment in time.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | quise | I wanted |
| Tú | quisiste | You wanted |
| Él / Ella / Usted | quiso | He / she / you wanted |
| Nosotros / as | quisimos | We wanted |
| Vosotros / as | quisisteis | You wanted |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | quisieron | They / you wanted |
| Vos | quisiste | You wanted |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was wanting” or “she was wanting” in English, and is typically used to describe things and set a scene, talk about events without a specific timeframe, or talk about habitual events or states in the past.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | quería | I was wanting |
| Tú | querías | You were wanting |
| Él / Ella / Usted | quería | He was / she was / you were wanting |
| Nosotros / as | queríamos | We were wanting |
| Vosotros / as | queríais | You were wanting |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | querían | They / you were wanting |
| Vos | querías | You were wanting |
The perfect tense is for talking about things which happened in the past but are still related to the present or continue into the present.
In English, these use the auxiliary verbs ‘have’ and ‘has’ – i.e. “I have wanted” and “she has wanted”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he querido | I have wanted |
| Tú | has querido | You have wanted |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha querido | He has / she has / you have wanted |
| Nosotros / as | hemos querido | We have wanted |
| Vosotros / as | habéis querido | You have wanted |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han querido | They / you have wanted |
| Vos | has querido | You have wanted |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would want” or “she would want”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | querría | I would want |
| Tú | querrías | You would want |
| Él / Ella / Usted | querría | He / she / you would want |
| Nosotros / as | querríamos | We would want |
| Vosotros / as | querríais | You would want |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | querrían | They / you would want |
| Vos | querrías | You would want |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will want” or “they will want”.
It is more commonly used for making a hypothesis about the present. To talk about the future, Spanish speakers frequently use “ir + a + infinivo”, e.g. “van a querer” means “They are going to want”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | querré | I will want |
| Tú | querrás | You will want |
| Él / Ella / Usted | querrá | He / she / you will want |
| Nosotros / as | querremos | We will want |
| Vosotros / as | querréis | You will want |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | querrán | They / you will want |
| Vos | querrás | You will want |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | quiera |
| Tú | quieras |
| Él / Ella / Usted | quiera |
| Nosotros / as | queramos |
| Vosotros / as | queráis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | quieran |
| Vos | quieras |
There are two ways to form the imperfect subjunctive.
The first option sees verbs ending in -era (for -er and -ir verbs) and -ara (for -ar verbs), while the second sees verbs ending in -ese (for -er and -ir verbs) and -ase (for -ar verbs).
There is no difference between these two forms, and Spanish speakers use them interchangeably.
| Pronoun | Spanish era/ara | Spanish ese/ase |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | quisiera | quisiese |
| Tú | quisieras | quisiese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | quisiera | quisiese |
| Nosotros / as | quisiéramos | quisiésemos |
| Vosotros / as | quisierais | quisieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | quisieran | quisiesen |
| Vos | quisieras | quisiese |
The future subjunctive is no longer used in modern-day Spanish, apart from in literary and legal contexts, and there is no need to learn it.
It is formed the same as the past/imperfect subjunctive, but with -e endings instead of -a endings.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | quisiere |
| Tú | quisieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | quisiere |
| Nosotros / as | quisiéremos |
| Vosotros / as | quisiereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | quisieren |
| Vos | quisieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “want!” and “don’t want!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | quiere | no quieras |
| Él / Ella / Usted | quiera | no quiera |
| Nosotros / as | queramos | no queramos |
| Vosotros / as | quered | no queráis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | quieran | no quieran |
| Vos | queré | no quieras |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya querido |
| Tú | hayas querido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya querido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos querido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis querido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan querido |
| Vos | hayas querido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera querido / hubiese querido |
| Tú | hubieras querido / hubieses querido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera querido / hubiese querido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos querido / hubiésemos querido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais querido / hubieseis querido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran querido / hubiesen querido |
| Vos | hubieras querido / hubieses querido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere querido |
| Tú | hubieres querido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere querido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos querido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis querido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren querido |
| Vos | hubieres querido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté queriendo |
| Tú | estés queriendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté queriendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos queriendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis queriendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén queriendo |
| Vos | estés queriendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera queriendo / estuviese queriendo |
| Tú | estuvieras queriendo / estuvieses queriendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera queriendo / estuviese queriendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos queriendo / estuviésamos queriendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais queriendo / estuvieseis queriendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera queriendo / estuviese queriendo |
| Vos | estuvieras queriendo / estuvieses queriendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere queriendo |
| Tú | estuvieres queriendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere queriendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos queriendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis queriendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere queriendo |
| Vos | estuvieres queriendo |
Voseo is the practice of using ‘vos’ instead of ‘tú’ as the second-person singular pronoun, and is common throughout much of South America.
There are various versions of ‘voseo’ used throughout the Spanish-speaking world. The conjugations for the most common type – used throughout Argentina, parts of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguya and Uruguay are below.
The present indicative (presente de indicativo) and affirmative imperative (imperativo) have different conjugations from the tú form, while all other tenses generally use the tú form.
| Tense | Vos Conjugation |
|---|---|
| Present Indicative Presente de Indicativo | Vos querés |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos quisiste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos querías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos querrías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos querrás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos quieras |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos quisieras / Vos quisiese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos queré |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no quieras |
