querer

"To want," and — depending on context and tone — also "to love" (te quiero). A stem-changing verb (e→ie: quiero, quieres, quiere). Quiero is more direct than French vouloir's polite conditional habit; quisiera (imperfect subjunctive) is the softer, more formal way to request something.

• Quiero un café, por favor. — I'd like a coffee, please.
• Te quiero mucho. — I love you very much.
• ¿Quieres venir con nosotros? — Do you want to come with us?

Assuming te quiero always means romantic love the way English "I love you" does — it's also used for family and close friends, while te amo is reserved for stronger, usually romantic, declarations. Context and relationship decide which fits.

• quote "Quiero hacer contigo lo que la primavera hace con los cerezos" — A line from Pablo Neruda's Poem 14 in Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada (1924) — "I want to do with you what spring does with the cherry trees," one of the collection's best-known verses.
• expression "Querer es poder" — A Spanish proverb meaning roughly "where there's a will, there's a way" — listed in the Instituto Cervantes's Refranero Multilingüe. Shares its wording directly with poder, the verb it pairs with.