---
title: "sin querer queriendo"
translation: "Accidentally on purpose."
type: "word"
category: "expression"
url: "https://consalsa.app/words/sin-querer-queriendo"
canonical: "https://consalsa.app/words/sin-querer-queriendo"
published: "2026-11-06"
updated: "2026-11-06"
author: "Andrey the Nomad"
site: "ConSalsa.App"
license: "https://consalsa.app/terms#ip"
---

# sin querer queriendo
URL: https://consalsa.app/words/sin-querer-queriendo
Translation: Accidentally on purpose.
Pronunciation: /sin keˈɾeɾ keˈɾjen.do/
Category: expression
Region: Mexico
Register: playful, affectionate, safe with anyone
Variants: fue sin querer queriendo, sin querer, fue sin querer
Literal meaning: Without meaning to, meaning to. The contradiction is the joke - the sentence admits and denies intent in four words.
Published: 2026-11-06

Quick answer:
- Sin querer queriendo means accidentally on purpose - it admits and denies intent in the same breath.
- It is a quote from El Chavo del 8, and everybody hears it as one.
- The plain sin querer is the serious version, for things you genuinely did not mean.

What it means:
- An admission wearing a denial. The speaker did it, everybody knows they did it, and the phrase covers the gap without anybody having to be serious about it.
- It is almost always about something small. A knocked drink, an elbow, taking the last piece - the moment it is used for something that actually mattered, the joke stops working.

Literal meaning:
- Word for word it is without meaning to, meaning to. Spanish lets you stack the infinitive and the gerund of the same verb, and the contradiction is the whole point.
- It has never really been an idiom in the ordinary sense. It is a line of dialogue repeated so often it became one, which is why it carries a tone the words alone do not explain.

How Mexicans use it:
- As an excuse it is delivered with a face. The tone is the childish one from the show, and the person saying it expects to be laughed at rather than believed.
- As an accusation it works just as well. Fue sin querer queriendo, ¿verdad? said to somebody else means we both know you did that on purpose.
- It stretches beyond accidents. A comment that landed too well, a message sent to the wrong chat on purpose, a meeting somebody missed - anything where the deniability is thin.
- Fue sin querer, without the second half, is the honest version and it is what you use when you need to be believed.

Common mistake:
- Using it for something serious. It is a comedy quote, and attaching it to real damage lands as making light of it. If you actually did not mean it, the phrase is fue sin querer.
- Missing that it is a quote. It is not neutral vocabulary - it carries a specific, slightly childish register, and part of what you are saying is that you know where it came from.

Examples:
- Fue sin querer queriendo. — It was accidentally on purpose.
- ¿Sin querer queriendo o sin querer? — Accidentally on purpose, or actually by accident?
- Se acabó el último pedazo, y fue sin querer queriendo. — He finished the last piece - by accident, on purpose.
- Perdón, fue sin querer. — Sorry, I really didn't mean to.

Mini dialogue:
A: ¿Y el último pedazo de pastel?
B: Ah... eso.
A: Te lo comiste.
B: Fue sin querer queriendo.
A: Ajá. ¿Y el de ayer también?
B: Ese sí fue sin querer.

FAQ:
Q: What does sin querer queriendo mean?
A: Accidentally on purpose. It admits and denies intent in the same breath, and it is usually about something small.

Q: Where does sin querer queriendo come from?
A: El Chavo del 8, the Roberto Gómez Bolaños series from the 1970s. It is one of the most-quoted lines in Mexican television.

Q: Is the circus story about the phrase true?
A: Treat it as memoir. Gómez Bolaños told a story about a clown and a broom in his book, also called Sin querer queriendo, and the 2025 series his family produced dramatizes it - openly with creative liberties. He died in 2014, so the show is not his.

Q: What is the difference between sin querer and sin querer queriendo?
A: Honesty. Fue sin querer means you genuinely did not mean it. The longer version is a confession dressed as a denial.

Q: Can I use it for something serious?
A: No. It is a comedy quote, and attached to real damage it reads as making light of it. Use fue sin querer if you need to be believed.

Q: Do people outside Mexico understand it?
A: Widely, yes - the show has been repeating across Latin America for decades, and the line traveled with it.

Q: What is se me chispoteó?
A: The other great line from the same show - roughly it slipped out of me, said after saying something you should not have.

Related words: ni-modo, ya-valio, cagado, me-lleva, hijole