Meaning of "Vontade"

Meaning of “Vontade”

“Vontade” is a noun.  Its literal translation is:

• Will / Wish
• Desire
• Pleasure
• Mind

Common expressions formed with the word include (from here):

Ficar à vontade

This means make yourself at home. You’ll hear this if you’re in someone’s home or office.  

Bem-vindo! Fique à vontade. Quer um cafezinho?

Welcome. Make yourself at home. Do you want a coffee?

Estar com vontade de

This means, “Are you in the mood to” or “Do you feel like.”  Similarly, “estar sem vontade” is to not be in the mood for something.

Você está com vontade de ir no cinema?

Do you feel like going to the movies?  

Estou sem vontade de estudar hoje.

I’m not in the mood to study today.

Que vontade de

This expresses a wish to do something, roughly: “What desire to.”  

Que vontade de pular na piscina!

What desire to jump in the pool!  

Que vontade de comer feijoada!

What desire to eat feijoada!

Vontade

In some cases, you can use vontade as “the urge,” particularly when talking about physical needs.  

Ele sempre está com vontade de urinar.

He always has the urge to pee.  

A vontade de tossir é maior à noite.

The urge to cough is worse at night.

LOTS more sentences using the word “vontade” can be found on Tatoeba here

Ter + vontade de + Infinitive   OR Estar com + vontade de = “I feel like ______” (from here)

Expressing desire using the grammatical formula [ter + vontade de + infinitive verb] is a way to talk about longing or lasting desire.

Similarly, [estar + ter vontade de + infinitive verb] is a way to express a momentary desire

• Estou com vontade de tomar sorvete.
• I feel like (eating) ice cream.

• Ela estava com vontade de desistir.
• She felt like giving up.

• Às vezes tenho vontade de mudar de vida.
• Sometimes I feel like changing everything about my life.

• Não tenho vontade de passar por aquilo tudo de novo.
• I don’t feel like going through all that again.

The verb ficar can be used instead of estar com/ter to signal a change from not wanting to wanting:

• Quando tomo café, fico com vontade de fumar.
• When I drink coffee I feel like smoking.

• Depois da viagem à Argentina, fiquei com vontade de conhecer outros países.
• After the trip to Argentina, I felt I wanted to visit other countries.

The expression dar vontade de is used either with or without an explicit subject with the meaning of ‘make (me) want to’. It may be preceded by the unstressed pronouns me and te in colloquial speech and the third person pronoun lhe in more formal contexts, but it is also used without a pronoun object:

• Quando tomo café, me dá vontade de fumar.
• When I drink coffee, I feel like smoking.

• O frio dá vontade de ficar em casa.
• The cold makes you want to stay at home.

• Não te dá vontade de gritar?
• Doesn’t it make you want to scream?

• Ele senta no jardim quando lhe dá vontade.
• He sits in garden when he feels like it.