vouloir

"To want," also directly followed by an infinitive with no preposition. Je veux is blunt and can sound demanding in French more than in English — je voudrais (the conditional, "I would like") is the normal polite register for requests, especially ordering food or asking for something.

• Je veux partir maintenant. — I want to leave now.
• Je voudrais un café, s'il vous plaît. — I would like a coffee, please.
• Elle ne veut pas venir. — She doesn't want to come.

Ordering with je veux ("I want") at a café or restaurant reads as abrupt in French — native speakers default to je voudrais even for something small, and beginners often skip that softening entirely.

• expression "Vouloir, c'est pouvoir" — "To want is to be able" — a French proverb documented since at least 1818, roughly equivalent to "where there's a will, there's a way."
• song Je veux — Zaz's breakout 2010 single from her debut album — an anti-consumerist song rejecting money for love, joy, and freedom, and one of the most popular French songs of that decade.