Portuguese verbs can feel more cumbersome to learn than, say, English. Being a Romance language, Portuguese isn’t short of verb forms to keep track of.
Fortunately, there are plenty of regular verbs as well—that is, verbs following a regular pattern in their conjugation. This means you can learn and apply a conjugation “formula” that works with any regular verb.
In Portuguese, regular verbs are distributed into 3 conjugation groups:
| 1st conjugation: -AR (Acordar) | 2nd conjugation: -ER (Mexer) | 3rd conjugation: -IR (Partir) | |
| Eu | acordo | mexo | parto |
| Tu | acordas | mexes | partes |
| Ele, ela, Você | acorda | mexe | parte |
| Nós | acordamos | mexemos | partimos |
| Vocês | acordam | mexem | partem |
| Eles, elas | acordam | mexem | partem |
In what follows, I’ll walk you through the conjugation patterns in greater detail. Specifically, we’ll look at some minor spelling adjustments that sometimes occur in the first person of the present tense. Read on.
🔎 See also Portuguese Regular Verbs in the Past Tense.
Regular conjugation
To conjugate any regular verb in the present tense, remove the ending of the infinitive – either –ar, –er, or –ir – and add, instead, the following endings to the stem (marked in bold):
| 1st conjugation: -AR (Pensar) | 2nd conjugation: -ER (Vender) | 3rd conjugation: -IR (Abrir) | |
| Eu | penso | vendo | abro |
| Tu | pensas | vendes | abres |
| Ele, ela, você | pensa | vende | abre |
| Nós | pensamos | vendemos | abrimos |
| Vocês (vós) | pensam (pensais) | vendem (vendeis) | abrem (abris) |
| Eles, elas | pensam | vendem | abrem |
| Other commonly used regular verbs | ficar, andar, falar, chegar, costumar, gostar, morar | comer, beber, querer, dever, correr, viver | partir, existir, sentir, dormir |
💡In modern Portuguese, the 2nd- and 3rd-person plural share the same form. You may occasionally hear the outdated vós forms (shown in parentheses), but since their usage is extremely rare, you don’t really need to learn them.
Semi-Regular: Minor spelling adjustments
There are a few verbs in the -ir group whose conjugation follows the above pattern except for the first person – these are verbs containing either an e or an o in their stem.
So, the e and o become i and u (respectively) in the first person. Here are a few examples:
| e to i | |
| despir | eu dispo, tu despes, ele despe, etc. |
| mentir | eu minto, tu mentes, ele mente, etc. |
| preferir | eu prefiro, tu preferes, ele, prefere, etc |
| o to u | |
| cobrir | eu cubro, tu cobres, ele, cobre, etc. |
| dormir | eu durmo, tu dormes, ele dorme, etc. |
| tossir | eu tusso, tu tosses, ele tosse, etc. |
Also, if the stem of an -er or -ir verb ends in -c, -g, or –gu, these consonants change to -ç, -j, and g respectively in the first person of the present tense to preserve the original sound*:
| c to ç | |
| conhecer | eu conheço, tu conheces, ele conhece, etc. |
| parecer | eu pareço, tu pareces, ele parece, etc. |
| g to j | |
| fugir | eu fujo, tu foges, ele foge, etc. |
| agir | eu ajo, tu ages, ele age, etc. |
| gu to g | |
| conseguir | eu consigo, tu consegues, ele consegue, etc. |
| seguir | eu sigo, tu segues, ele segue, etc. |
* Learn more about sound-and-spelling patterns in Portuguese.
10 non-regular verbs you want to learn
There are indeed many regular verbs in the present tense (with the 1st-conjugation group being the largest). However, some of the most widely used Portuguese verbs are irregular.
Here’re 10 Portuguese irregular verbs you should know by heart:
| ser (be) | sou, és, é, somos, são |
| estar (be) | estou, estás, está, estamos, estão |
| ter (have) | tenho, tens, tem, temos, têm |
| haver (there is) | há |
| dar (give) | dou, dás, dá, damos, dão |
| pôr (put) | ponho, pões, põe, pomos, põem |
| ir (go) | vou, vais, vai, vamos, vão |
| fazer (do, make) | faço, fazes, faz, fazemos, fazem |
| poder (can) | posso, podes, pode, podemos, podem |
| saber (know) | sei, sabes, sabe, sabemos, sabem |
🔎 Portuguese Must-Know Irregular Verbs
