Past Participle in Portuguese

In Portuguese, we use the Past Participle to form Perfect tenses and the passive voice. In addition, we use Past Participles as adjectives.

In what follows, I will walk you through the Portuguese Past Participle in greater detail. Read on.

There’s also the Present Participle or Gerúndio as we call it in Portuguese. Learn more about it: Portuguese Gerund: Progressive Tenses and Beyond.

Past Participles and Their Verb Forms

Regular Past Participles

Generally, the Past Participle is formed by replacing the suffixes –ar, -er, and -ir of the Infinitive verb forms with either –ado or –ido. Here’s an example for each of the 3 conjugational groups:

1st group *-ar*	2nd group -er	3rd group -ir
Filmar (film)	Mexer (stir)	Partir (depart)
*Filmado*	*Mexido*	*Partido*

Irregular Past Participles

Here are a few verbs with irregular Past Participles:

	Past Participles
abrir (open)	*aberto*
cobrir (cover)	*coberto*
dizer (say)	*dito*
escrever (write)	*escrito*
fazer* (do)	*feito*
pagar (pay)	*pago*
ver (see)	*visto*
vir (come)	*vindo*
pôr (put)	*posto*

* The Portuguese verb Fazer is versatile and idiomatic. Learn more about it it: The Portuguese Verb “Fazer” and All the Things You Say with It.

Shifting Past Participles

Some verbs have two Past Participle forms, one regular and the other irregular. The regular form is used in connection with the auxiliary verbs Ter and Haver, whereas the irregular one is used with Ser or Estar :

	Regular Participle Ter/Haver	Irregular Participle Ser/Estar
aceitar (accept)	*aceitado*	*aceite*
entregar (deliver)	*entregado*	*entregue*
matar (kill)	*matado*	*morto*
salvar (save)	*salvado*	*salvo*
acender (light)	*acendido*	*acesso*
eleger (elect)	*elegido*	*eleito*
morrer (die)	*morrido*	*morto*
prender (arrest)	*prendido*	*preso*
exprimir (express)	*exprimido*	*expresso*
imprimir (print)	*imprimido*	*impresso*

Here’s an example with the verb eleger:

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