If you’ve heard that learning the verbs in Portuguese can be a nightmare for some learners, you’ve heard right! Will they be a nightmare for you? Maybe, but only if you let them. It’s no secret that the verbs in Latin-based languages can be cumbersome to learn. This is especially more challenging if, in your native language, there aren’t many conjugations, such as English. In this lesson we’re starting with the basics: the present tense for regular verbs in Portuguese and later I’ll share a great tip to keep the nightmare at bay.
Before we begin
1-If you’re not familiar with some of the grammar terminology or need a more in-depth explanation of them, please check this post here before continuing.
2-Regarding sentence structure in Portuguese, we’ve seen before that it’s SVO in the post called the SVO sequence (subject/verb/object).
But if you’re ready, let’s jump in!
Lesson 1
In this lesson, we’re looking at the Present Tense in Portuguese. It’s called Presente do Indicativo. This tense is used for:
- Anything factual (My name is…./she has a new car. /They don’t like octopus/the weather is bad today)
- Describing habitual actions. Anything that is done in a repetitious way as a normal pattern during our daily lives (I read every day/he goes to the gym every Monday/she speaks to her parents every month)
- Something current including questions (What do you do for a living? I type or I’m typing these days/Does she work there?)
- Talking about the near future (Tomorrow, I’m going to England)
- For emphasis (I do speak a little Portuguese)
We saw before (in this post) that verbs can be divided into regular and irregular. Regular verbs mean all verbs in that category follow the same formula or pattern throughout most tenses and irregulars not so much or at all.
Tense Formula
How does the formula for the regular verbs in the present tense in Portuguese work?
I’ll walk you through what you do to get to each conjugation for the right grammatical person.
To apply the formulas for the present tense you must first remove the final two letters (AR/ER or IR) and replace them with the following endings:
So what would that look like exactly with verbs? Let’s have a look:
By now it must be dawning on you why verbs are so cumbersome to learn in Portuguese… As I briefly mentioned earlier, each verb has over 50 different forms. This means each tense has 5 conjugations you need to know plus the infinitive forms. Now multiply that by how many verbs you need to learn if you want to converse properly in Portuguese. – it’s a lot!
Studying Tenses in Portuguese
But there is a way to keep all this manageable and not lose the will to live.
As you become more accustomed to verb conjugations and more familiar with the patterns. This is what I would like you to do whenever you are learning a new verb or tense:
Firstly, learn the infinitives and the conjugations for the grammatical persons “I” and “he/she” for most used conversational verbs. Doing this will cut your work in half. There is a hidden bonus here, which is that the “he/she” conjugation is the same for the “formal you” and is also used for objects and for “it”. When you feel confident with these then add the remaining conjugations one at a time later.
For an example of this method, please check out the tables below.
Below are the conjugations for the regular verbs out of the top 25 most used verbs in conversational Portuguese. I advise you to focus on:
When you learn new words, it’s always a good thing to put them into a sentence. Next are some examples of sentences with the conjugations of the verbs in the above table.
Eu fico aqui. (I stay here)
ˈew ˈfi.ku ɐ.ˈki.
Ela fica em Faro. (She stays in Faro)
ˈe.ɫɐ ˈfi.kɐ ɐ̃j ˈfa.ɾu
Acho que vou para casa. (I think I’ll go home.)
ˈa.ʃu kɨ ˈvo pɐ.ɾɐ ˈka.zɐ
O que acha? (What do you think?)
u kɨ ˈa.ʃɐ
Hoje acabo o trabalho às cinco. (Today I finish work at five.)
ˈo.ʒɨ ɐ.ˈka.bu u tɾɐ.ˈba.ʎu à ˈsĩ.ku
Deixo as chaves aqui? (Shall I leave the keys here?)
ˈdɐj.ʃu ɐʃ ˈʃa.vɨz ɐ.ˈki
Ela deixa sempre o carro ali. (She always leaves her car over there)
ˈe.ɫɐ ˈdɐj.ʃɐ ˈsẽ.pɾɨ u ˈka.ʁu ɐ.ˈɫi
Dizem que me pareço com o meu Pai. (They say I look like my dad.)
ˈdi.zɐ̃j kɨ mɨ pɐ.ˈɾe.su kõ u ˈmew ˈpaj
O filme parece ser longo. (The film seems to be long)
u ˈfiɫ.mɨ pɐ.ˈɾe.sɨ ˈseɾ ˈɫõ.gu
Chego tarde esta noite. (I arrive late tonight.)
ˈʃe.gu ˈtaɾ.dɨ ˈeʃ.tɐ ˈnoj.tɨ.
A que horas chega? (At what time do you arrive?)
ɐ kɨ ˈo.ɾɐʃ ˈʃe.gɐ
Eu falo Português. (I speak Portuguese)
ˈew ˈfa.ɫu puɾ.tu.ˈgeʃ
Fala Inglês? (Do you speak English?)
ˈfa.ɫɐ ĩ.ˈgɫeʃ
Passo aqui todos os dias. (I pass here every day)
ˈpa.su ɐ.ˈki ˈto.duz uʒ ˈdi.ɐʃ
Ela passa ali amanhã. (She will pass there tomorrow)
ˈe.ɫɐ ˈpa.sɐ ɐ.ˈɫi ɐ.mɐ.ˈɲɐ̃
When you feel confident with the “I” and “you/he/she/it” forms (including for the top irregular verbs), then add in the “we” (nós) row like below:
When the “nós” row becomes easy and familiar, add the “they” (eles) row:
And finally, add the “tu” (informal you) row, when the “eles” row becomes second nature:
Take your time! Add a new row to your learning process only when you can recognize the previous one. This approach will help you learn verbs more efficiently and without stress. You’ll retain them better instead of overwhelming yourself with too many words at once. Remember, slow and steady wins the race regarding language learning!
With that said, that’s enough new information for this lesson.
A quick recap:
Your main goal after this lesson is to learn the following conjugations for now:
| ficar | achar | acabar | deixar | parecer | chegar | falar | passar | |
| Eu | fico | acho | acabo | deixo | pareço | chego | falo | passo |
| Ele/ela | fica | acha | acaba | deixa | parece | chega | fala | passa |
Secondary goals:
a) become familiar with the personal pronouns that are used in Portugal;
b) learn the formula for regular verbs in the present tense:
ar: o/as/a/amos/am
er: o/es/e/emos/em
ir: o/es/e/imos/em
Challenge yourself
Apply the formula you learned to the following verbs, but only your “I” and “you/he/she/it”:
abrir (to open)
fechar (to close)
comer (to eat)
beber (to drink)
andar (to walk)
partir (to depart/to break)
Solutions
| abrir | fechar | comer | beber | andar | partir | |
| Eu | abro | fecho | como | bebo | ando | parto |
| Ele/ela | abre | fecha | come | bebe | anda | parte |
European Portuguese Pronunciation
Watch this video for some insights on European Portuguese pronunciation.
Next lesson – Present tense for regular verbs in Portuguese part 2, and we’re looking at regular verbs that are irregular in the 1st person.