📖LearnModule 2 · Lesson 24 of 30Basic User · CEFR A1, completedUnit 5 · La comida — food
Quiero, quisiera — wanting politely
Module 2 of the free Spanish course (CEFR A1, completed), lesson 24 of 30: Querer (to want) changes its stem: quiero, quieres, quiere, queremos, quieren. On this page: 8 words with their genders and respellings, the rule, a watch-out line, the conjugation table and the audio — the study notes behind the workbook's QR.
The words
Spanish
English
Say it
querer
to want
keh-REHR
yo quiero
I want
yoh KYEH-roh
quisiera
I would like
kee-SYEH-rah
¿quieres…?
do you want…?
KYEH-rehs
yo quiero comer
I want to eat
yoh KYEH-roh koh-MEHR
tengo hambre
I am hungry
TEHN-goh AHM-breh
el hambrefeminine — takes el before its stressed a, like el agua
the hunger
ehl AHM-breh
la sed
the thirst
lah SEHD
Respellings follow the course’s say-it key; the stressed syllable is in capitals. Print this lesson’s flashcards (PDF) — the words on the front, the English and respelling on the back.
La regla · The rule
Querer (to want) changes its stem: quiero, quieres, quiere, queremos, quieren. Quiero pan. ¿Quieres agua? The nosotros form alone keeps the plain e of the infinitive.
Y también · And also
Quisiera (I would like) is the polite want — the form every café order starts with: Quisiera un jugo, por favor. Tengo hambre — I am hungry, you HAVE hunger. El hambre is another la-word wearing el.
Ojo · Watch out
quiero is blunt; quisiera is polite. Order with quisiera. And hunger is had, never been: tengo hambre.
querer, presente — the table
yo quiero · tú quieres · él/ella/usted quiere · nosotros queremos · ustedes quieren · ellos/ellas quieren
Do it now — on paper
Say all 8 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the Spanish spelling alone — begin with querer.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the Spanish.
Write out querer, presente in full from memory, every person, and check each form against the table above.
This free course is the reading half. The writing half — write-in lessons, daily practice pages with built-in review, self-checks and a full answer key — is the companion workbook series, The Spanish Ladder: one workbook per module, fifteen in all, released band by band with the Basic band (Modules 1–5) first.
Keep these words
Turn this lesson’s words into flashcards, then space your reviews — the two habits the research behind our study guides backs hardest.