Portuguese verb conjugation

Overview

Portuguese verbs have the following properties.

1. Two numbers—singular, plural
2. Three persons—first, second, third
3. Three aspects—perfective, imperfective, progressive*
4. Two voices—active, passive*
5. Six morphological forms for tenses, aspects, and/or moods — present, preterite, imperfect, pluperfect, future, and conditional.
6. Three (or four) moods—indicative, subjunctive, imperative (and conditional, according to some authors)

Classes with an asterisk are entirely periphrastic. The passive voice can be constructed in two different ways. The pluperfect and the future of the indicative mood, as well as the conditional form, are often replaced with other verbal constructions or verbal periphrases in the spoken language.

Basic tenses and moods

Conjugation is demonstrated here with the important irregular verb fazer "to do". The Portuguese names of the tenses (tempos) and moods (modos) are given along with their English translations.

Or in English (escrever, "to write"):

Notes

1. The pluperfect indicative can also be expressed with an equivalent periphrasis.
2. The future indicative is usually replaced with a periphrasis or the present indicative in the spoken language.
3. The Portuguese conditional is sometimes replaced with a periphrasis or with the imperfect indicative in the spoken language. Some authors regard it as a mood of its own, others treat it as a tense of the indicative mood.
4. In regular verbs, the future subjunctive and the personal infinitive are formally identical.
5. See the section on the imperative, below.

Description

The tenses correspond to:

Present (presente): "I do" or "I am doing".

Preterite (pretérito, or pretérito perfeito): "I did" or "I have done".

Imperfect (imperfeito, or pretérito imperfeito): "I did", "I used to do", "I was doing".

Pluperfect (mais-que-perfeito, or pretérito mais-que-perfeito): "I had done".

Future (futuro, or futuro do presente in Brazilian Portuguese): "I will do", "I am going to do".

Conditional (condicional, or futuro do pretérito in Brazilian Portuguese): "I would do". Used in some types of conditional sentences, as a form of courtesy, or as a future-in-the-past.

The five non-finite forms generally correspond to:

(Impersonal) infinitive (infinitivo, or infinitivo impessoal): equivalent to English "to do".

Past participle (particípio, or particípio passado): equivalent to English "done".

Present participle (particípio presente): equivalent to English "doing".

Gerund (gerúndio): equivalent to English "doing".

Personal infinitive (infinitivo pessoal): "(for me) to do", an infinitive which inflects according to its subject; a rare feature that Portuguese shares with Galician.

The moods are used roughly as follows:

Indicative (indicativo): for factual statements or positive beliefs. Example of an English equivalent: "I have done".

Subjunctive (subjuntivo, or conjuntivo): mostly used when speaking of unreal, uncertain, or unassumed conditions: "Were I to do".

Imperative (imperativo): for direct commands or requests; equivalent to the English "Do!"

For the Portuguese personal pronouns (which are omitted whenever they can be inferred from the ending of the conjugated verb or the context), see Portuguese personal pronouns and possessives.

Conjugations

Regular verbs belong to one of three conjugation classes, distinguished by the ending of their infinitive forms (which is also their citation form):

Those whose infinitive ends in -ar belong to the first conjugation (e.g. lavar, matar, ladrar);

Those whose infinitive ends in -er belong to the second conjugation (e.g. correr, comer, colher);

Those whose infinitive ends in -ir belong to the third conjugation (e.g. partir, destruir, urdir);

The verb pôr is conventionally placed in the second conjugation by many authors, since it is derived from Old Portuguese poer (Latin ponere). In any event, this is an irregular verb whose conjugation must be learned on its own. Other verbs with infinitives ending in -or, such as depor, compor, and propor are derivatives of pôr, and are conjugated in the same way.

First conjugation (cantar)

Non-finite forms

Infinitive: cantar

Gerund: cantando

Past participle: cantado

Present participle: cantante

Personal infinitives: cantar, cantares, cantar, cantarmos, cantardes, cantarem

Indicative

Present: canto, cantas, canta, cantamos, cantais, cantam

Imperfect: cantava, cantavas, cantava, cantávamos, cantáveis, cantavam

Preterite: cantei, cantaste, cantou, cantámos (EP) or cantamos (BP), cantastes, cantaram

Pluperfect: cantara, cantaras, cantara, cantáramos, cantáreis, cantaram

Future: cantarei, cantarás, cantará, cantaremos, cantareis, cantarão

Conditional (Preterite Future): cantaria, cantarias, cantaria, cantaríamos, cantaríeis, cantariam

Subjunctive

Present: cante, cantes, cante, cantemos, canteis, cantem

Imperfect: cantasse, cantasses, cantasse, cantássemos, cantásseis, cantassem

Future: cantar, cantares, cantar, cantarmos, cantardes, cantarem

Imperative

canta (tu), cante (você), cantemos (nós), cantai (vós), cantem (vocês)

Second conjugation (comer)

Non-finite forms

Infinitive: comer

Gerund: comendo

Past participle: comido

Personal infinitives: comer, comeres, comer, comermos, comerdes, comerem

Indicative

Present: como, comes, come, comemos, comeis, comem

Imperfect: comia, comias, comia, comíamos, comíeis, comiam

Preterite: comi, comeste, comeu, comemos, comestes, comeram

Pluperfect: comera, comeras, comera, comêramos, comêreis, comeram

Future: comerei, comerás, comerá, comeremos, comereis, comerão

Conditional: comeria, comerias, comeria, comeríamos, comeríeis, comeriam

Subjunctive

Present: coma, comas, coma, comamos, comais, comam

Imperfect: comesse, comesses, comesse, comêssemos, comêsseis, comessem

Future: comer, comeres, comer, comermos, comerdes, comerem

Imperative

come (tu), coma (você), comamos (nós), comei (vós), comam (vocês)

Third conjugation (partir)

Non-finite forms

Infinitive: partir

Gerund: partindo

Past participle: partido

Personal infinitives: partir, partires, partir, partirmos, partirdes, partirem

Indicative

Present: parto, partes, parte, partimos, partis, partem

Imperfect: partia, partias, partia, partíamos, partíeis, partiam

Preterite: parti, partiste, partiu, partimos, partistes, partiram

Pluperfect: partira, partiras, partira, partíramos, partíreis, partiram

Future: partirei, partirás, partirá, partiremos, partireis, partirão

Conditional: partiria, partirias, partiria, partiríamos, partiríeis, partiriam

Subjunctive

Present: parta, partas, parta, partamos, partais, partam

Imperfect: partisse, partisses, partisse, partíssemos, partísseis, partissem

Future: partir, partires, partir, partirmos, partirdes, partirem

Imperative

parte (tu), parta (você), partamos (nós), parti (vós), partam (vocês)

Quick reference

1. European Portuguese
2. Brazilian Portuguese

Important irregular verbs

The following irregular verbs are used as auxiliary verbs in various periphrastic constructions.

haver – to have, to happen, there to be

1. or hemos (archaic)
2. or heis (archaic)

Conditional and future

There are few irregular verbs for these tenses (only dizer, fazer, trazer, and their compounds – also haver, ter, ser, ir, pôr, estar, etc. – for the subjunctive future imperfect). The indicative future imperfect, conditional and subjunctive future imperfect are formed by adding to the infinitive of the verb the indicative present inflections of the auxiliary verb haver (dropping the h and av), the 2nd/3rd conjugation endings of the preterite imperfect and the personal infinitive endings, respectively. Thus, for the majority of verbs, the simple personal infinitive coincides with subjunctive future.

Imperative

The affirmative imperative for second person pronouns tu and vós is obtained from the present indicative, by deletion of the final -s (in some cases, an accent mark must be added to the vowel which precedes it). For other persons, and for negative clauses, the present subjunctive takes the role of imperative.

Pronunciation of present inflections

In the present tense, the stress fluctuates between the root and the termination. As a rule of thumb, the last radical vowel (the one that can be stressed) will retain its original pronunciation when unstressed (atonic) and change into [a], [e] (subjunctive or indicative 1st pers sing)/[ɛ] (infinitive), or [o] (subjunctive or indicative 1st pers sing)/[ɔ] (infinitive) – depending on the vowel in question – in case it is stressed (is in a tonic syllable). Other vowels (u, i) and nasalized sounds will probably stay unchanged.

Example: Consider the conjugation of correr (analogous to comer, presented above) in the Indicative Present Simple. The first-person singular corro has [o] in the stressed vowel, while other forms corres, corre, correm have [ɔ].

In Portugal, all verbs with /o/ or /e/ in the stem vowel alternate similarly (/e/ alternates between [e] in the 1st person singular and [ɛ] elsewhere). In the forms where the stem vowel is unstressed, the /e/ is pronounced [ɨ] and the /o/ is pronounced /u/ in some verbs (e.g. comer) and /ɔ/ in others (e.g. absorver, below). The difference is probably due to whether the stem syllable is open (followed by at most one consonant) or closed (followed by at least two consonants).

In Brazil, the following difference apply:

Alternation in stem-stressed forms is similar, but is blocked when a nasal consonant (/m/, /n/ or /ɲ/) follows, in which case the higher alternant (i.e. /o/ or /e/) is used in all forms. For example, in the verb comer, all of the forms como, comes, come, comem have /o/.

Stem-unstressed forms consistently have /o/ or /e/.

Example, absorver "to absorb" ([u] in Portugal, [o] in Brazil).

It will be conjugated in Portugal as [ɐpˈsoɾvu], [ɐpˈsɔɾvɨʃ], [ɐpˈsɔɾvɨ], [ɐpsɔɾˈvemuʃ], [ɐpsɔɾˈvɐjʃ], [ɐpˈsɔɾvɐ̃j].

In Brazil, it is pronounced approximately as [abiˈsoxvu], [abiˈsɔxvis], [abiˈsɔxvi], [abisoxˈvemus], [abisoxˈvejs], [abiˈsɔxvẽj]. ("Approximately" because some dialects don't have the "i" sound after b, and some substitute different sounds for the [x] and the final [s].)

This also has repercussions in the imperative, for its inflections are constructed from the Indicative Present Simple.