Learning how verbs work in Portuguese is one of the biggest challenges you’ll face as a learner. But by focusing specifically on they’re used in within the context of the spoken language, we can take certain shortcuts that’ll simplify the learning process and get you conversational faster. So in this tutorial, we’re gonna be covering pretty much all the verb conjugations you’ll need for everyday conversations. And we’re gonna be building from the ground up using tons of real-world examples that will bring the concepts to life. With that said, I wanna start our discussion of the present tense by
showing you a short clip of Neymar, where he responds to a question about whether he believed his athletic abilities Were a God-given gift. He says: **“Eu acho que sim”** (I think so). “**Acho que é um dom que Deus me deu**” (I think that it’s a gift that God gave me). Now, I wanna first draw your attention to the word “**acho**”. So **“acho”** means “I think”, and it comes from the verb **“achar”**, which means “to think”. When Charles Oliveira was asked for a prediction on Connor McGregor’s next fight, he **said**: “Eu *não* acho” (I don’t think),
“que ele vai ganhar” (that he’s going to win). So most verbs in Portuguese end in **AR** just like “achar”. For example, **“falar”**, which means “to speak”. Based on what you just saw, how would you say “*I* speak”? “I speak” is **“falo”**. More specifically, “***eu* falo**”—“eu” meaning “I”. So all you’re doing is **replacing** the AR verb ending with an “o” (which is pronounced like a “u”—“fa-lu”). “I speak **English**” would be “Eu falo inglês” Now, if you wanna say **“*he or she* speaks”**, you’d say “ele or ela FALA”. So here, you’re just **replacing** the AR with an
“a”, and that “a” is pronounced like the “a” in the words “Cuba” or “sofa”—“FA-LUH”. “He speaks **Portuguese**” would be “Ele fala português” To say “***you* speak**”, it’d be “você fala”. So it’s the same exact deal as with “he or she speaks”—you’re just **dropping** the AR in “falar” and replacing it with an “a”. If you wanna ask someone if they speak English, You’d **say** “Você fala inglês?” Now, to say “***we*** speak”, it’d be “a gente fala”. So you **conjugate** it the same exact way as the “he/she”, as well as “you” form—and this goes for all the
verb forms that we’ll be seeing. One thing that I wanna point out is that in Portuguese, there are actually two ways of saying we—“**nós**”, which is the standard form you see more in the written language, and “**a gente**”, which is the colloquial form. In this tutorial, we’re gonna be focusing on **“a gente”**, because 1) it’s way more common in the spoken language, and 2) it’s easier to learn since you’re just using the same conjugations as “he/she” and “you”. So, “nós” comes with its own set of conjugations, as you can see here in the phrase “**Nós
Falamos inglês**” (We speak English), and you’ll *eventually* wanna learn them. But it’s not super critical to know right away for conversational purposes, and so it’s something we can cover in a later video. To say “***they*** **speak**”—first of all, they’re two ways of saying **“**they**”**—“eles”, and “elas” if you’re referring strictly to a group of females. So “they speak” would be “eles” or “elas FALAM”. Now here, you’re **replacing** the “A-R” with an “A-M”, except that the “A-M” is pronounced with this nasal “ão” sound—“FA-LAM”. “They **speak** really fast” would be “Eles falam muito rápido” And then “***you guys***
speak” is “vocês falam”—so it’s just the **same** “A-M” ending as “they”—“FA-LAM”. So summarizing the verb conjugations for “falar” in the present tense, we have “falo”, “fala” and “falam”. Now let’s switch back to the verb “**achar**” (to think). We saw that “I think” is “**eu acho**”. How would you say “*you* think”…? “**Você acha**”. How about “*you guys* think”…? “**Vocês acham**”. Now let’s take a look at another AR verb—“**estudar**”, which means to “study”. How would you say “I study”…? “**eu estudo**”. What about “*we* study”…? “**A gente** estuda”. How would you say “*they* study” if you’re referring to
a group of females? “**Elas estudam**”. So this is how verbs that end in “AR” generally work in the present tense. If you’re getting value out of this tutorial so far, go ahead and let me know by hitting that “like” button. Obrigado! Now, besides **AR** verbs like “falar” and “achar”, you’ve also got ones that end in **“ER”** like “viver” (to live) and “comer” (to eat). As well as those that end in **“IR”,** as in “decidir” (to decide) and “abrir” (to open). Let’s take a look at how you conjugate **“ER”** verbs in the present tense, using “viver”
as a model. **“I live**” is “eu vivo”—so just like for AR verbs, you’re just replacing the ending with an “o”. “**He lives**” would be “ele vive”—here, you’re dropping the ER ending and replacing it with an “e”. Then “**they live**” is “eles vivem”—the ER gets replaced by this “E-M”, which is pronounced “ē”—“VI-vem”. And then for **IR verbs—**using “decidir” as a model—you’ve got “**eu decido**” (I decide). “**we decide**” would be “a gente decide”. And then “**they decide**” is “eles decidem”. So we see here that IR and ER verbs share **the same exact** verb endings in the present
tense. So if “**pagar**” is “to pay”, how would you say “I pay”? “**eu pago**”. If “**perder**” means “to lose”, how would you say “they lose”? “**eles perdem**”. If the verb meaning “**to hear**” is “ouvir”, what would “he hears” be? “**ele ouve**”. If “**trabalhar**” is “to work”, how would you say “we work”? “**a gente trabalha**”. In this post from Edson Barboza, he says “Algumas vezes a gente **trabalha** o corpo” (sometimes we work the body), “algumas vezes a gente **trabalha** a mente” (sometimes we work the mind). Now, in addition to having changes to the verb ending, there
are certain verbs that Have *pronunciation* changes in the present tense as well. Let’s take the verb “**comer**” as an example. The **“O”** in “comer” is pronounced with a closed O, which is like the “o” in the English word “cold”. The **“O”** in “como” (I eat) is also pronounced with a closed O, so nothing changes here. But now let’s take a look at how the “O” is pronounced in the next two forms—“**come**” & “**comem**”. So here, the pronunciation changes from a closed O to an ***open O,*** which is like the “awe” in “awesome”. Since it isn’t
always obvious from the spelling when an “o” should be pronounced as an open O like this, just for purposes of this tutorial, we’re going to use this **open O symbol** to indicate that we need to pronounce it as /ɔ/, as in “awesome”—in this case, “come” and “comem”. Just remember that it’s really spelled with an “o”. So a few other ER verbs that follow the same type of pronunciation pattern as “comer” are “**correr**” (to run)—so you have “**corro**” (I run), which is pronounced with a closed O. But then in the next two forms, the pronunciation of
the “O” changes to an open O—“**corre**” and “**correm**”. And the same thing goes for “**escolher**” (to choose)—“**escolho**”, “**escolhe**”, and “**escolhem**”. Now let’s look at a few AR verbs. With the verb “**gostar**” (to like)—it’s “gosto, “gosta”, and “gostam”. So here, we see how the pronunciation of the “O” changes from closed to open in the “**I-form**” as well—so “I like” is “eu GÓSTO” (not “gosto”—“gosto” means “taste”). Just a few of many other verbs that follow this pattern are “**jogar**” (to play)—“I play” is “jógo”,“joga”, and “jogam”. And “**adorar**” (to love)—“adoro”, “adora”, and “adoram”. So that was the **first
type** of pronunciation change we see in the present tense, where the pronunciation of the “O” changes from closed to open. The other type is where the pronunciation of the **“E”** changes from a closed E (which is like the /e/ sound in “say”) to an open E (which like the “ai” sound in the word “air”). Let’s check out a few examples of this. Using the verb “**beber**” (to drink) as an example. The **“e”** in “beber” is pronounced with a closed e, and it stays closed in the “**I-form**”—“eu bebo” (I drink). But then it changes to an
*open E* in the next two forms—“**bebe**” & “**bebem**”. So just as a learning tool to help us nail the correct pronunciation, we’re going to use this **open E symbol** to indicate that we need to pronounce it as /ɛ/, as in “air”—keeping in mind that it’s really spelled with a regular “e”. Another ER verb that follows the same pattern as “beber” is “**receber**” (to receive)—so you have “**recebo**” (pronounced with a closed E), then “**recebe**” and “**recebem**” are pronounced with an open E. And the same thing goes for “**escrever**” (to write)—“**escrevo**”, “**escreve**”, and “**escrevem**”. Now let’s look
at some AR verbs. With the verb “**esperar**” (to hope)—it’s “espero, “espera”, and “esperam”. So here, the pronunciation of the “E” changes from closed to open in the “**I-form**” as well—“I hope” is “eu espero”. Other verbs that follow this pattern are “**levar**” (to take or carry)—“levo”, “leva”, “levam”. And “**começar**” (to start)—“começo”, “começa”, and “começam”. So you might be **asking:** “How are you supposed to know which verbs have these pronunciation changes?”. And the **answer** is—you just have to learn which ones have it. Now, I’ll have a PDF guide for this tutorial available for download, and it’ll include
a list of the most common verbs that have these pronunciation changes. Now let’s talk about the past tense. “I spoke” is “eu falei”. “She spoke”—“Ela falou”. “You guys spoke”—“Vocês falaram” (once again that **AM** is pronounced ÃO—“falaram”). Let’s take a look at “**achar**”. “I thought is “**eu achei**”. “You thought”—“**Você achou**”. “They thought”—“**Eles acharam**”. What would the three conjugations for “**estudar**” be? “**Estudei**”, “**estudou**”, and “**estudaram**”. So to conjugate a verb that ends in AR in the past tense, all you do is replace the AR with either “**EI**”, “**OU**”, or “**ARAM**”. Now let’s take a look at **ER
verbs**. “I ate” is “eu **comi**”. “We ate”—“a gente **comeu**”. “You guys ate”—“vocês **comeram**”. On to **IR verbs**. “I decided” is “eu **decidi**”. “She decided”—“Ela **decidiu**”. “They decided”—“eles **decidiram**”. So whereas the endings for ER verbs are **“i”**, **“eu”**, and **“eram”**, the ones for IR verbs are **“i”**, **“iu”** and **“iram”**. So if “**jogar**” is “to play”, how would you say “you played”? “**você jogou**”. If “**ler**” means “to read”, how would you say “they read”? “**eles leram**”. If the verb meaning “**to leave**” is “sair”, what would “she left” be? “**ela saiu**”. If “**chorar**” is “to cry”, how would
you say “I cried”? “**eu chorei**”. In this post from Vinícius Jr. after Brazil lost in the World Cup, he says: “**Chorei** no campo” (I cried on the field), “**chorei** no vestiário” (I cried in the locker room), “**chorei** sozinho no avião” (I cried by myself on the plane), “**chorei** ao chegar em casa” (I cried when I got home). So in Portuguese, there are two main past tenses. What we just saw is called the “**preterite**”, and it’s used to describe completed past actions. For example, “Eu falei com ele ontem” (I spoke with him yesterday). So it pretty
much corresponds to the simple past in English. Now, the other past tense is the “**imperfect**”, and it expresses ongoing or repeated actions in the past with no clear end. An example of this is “Eu falava com ele todos os dias” (I used to speak with him every day). Let’s take a look at how the imperfect is formed. For AR verbs, the two verb endings you need to know are “**-**ava” as in “eu falava” (“I would” or “I used to speak”), and then “-avam” as in “eles falavam”. For verbs that end in ER like “**comer**”, it’s
“**ia**” as in “ele comia” (“he would” or “he used to eat”), and “**iam**” as in “vocês comiam”. And then **IR verbs** share the same exact endings as ER verbs—“**decidia**” and “**decidiam**”. So if “**chegar**” is “to arrive”, how would you say “we would arrive” or “we used to arrive”? “**a gente chegava**”. If “**treinar**” means “to train”, how would you say “I would train” or “I used to train?” “**eu treinava**”. If “**correr**” is “to run”, what would “they used to run” be? “**eles corriam**”. If “**assistir**” is “to watch”, how would you say “I would watch” or “I
used to watch?” “**eu assistia**”. There’s a classic Brazilian song called “Gostava tanto de você” (I liked you So much). “**Gostava**” being the imperfect tense of the verb “gostar”. Now, I wanna come back to the **preterite tense** for a moment. So the **preterite** is also used to express the English present perfect. In other words, you would use it to say “I *have* spoken” or “I *have* eaten”, etc. And it’s often indicated with “já”, which means “already” or “yet”. So the **preterite** is also used to express the English present perfect. In other words, you would use it
to say “I *have* spoken” or “I *have* eaten”, etc. And it’s often indicated with “já”, which means “already” or “yet”. Now, let’s learn how to talk about the future. So the true **future tense** isn’t used all that much in the spoken language, so we’re not going to be covering that in this tutorial. In conversational Portuguese, there are two much more common ways of expressing the future. The first is just the simple **present tense** when the future is implied by context. For example, “Amanhã eu falo com ele” (Tomorrow I’ll talk with him). The other way, is
by taking the **present tense of the verb IR** (which means “to go”), plus the infinitive (or the basic, neutral form of the verb). In other words, what you’re literally saying is “I’m going to speak” or “I’m going to eat”, etc. For example, “I *will* speak” would be “eu vou falar”—literally “I’m *going* to speak”. “She *will* speak” would be “ela vai falar”. “they *will* speak” would be “eles vão falar”. And then for **ER and IR verbs**, it works exactly the same way—it’ll always be “vou”, “vai”, or “vão” plus the verb. So if “**tentar**” is “to try”,
how would you say “I’m going to” or “I will try”? “**eu vou tentar**”. If “**amar**” means “to love”, how would you say “you’re going to love it? “**você vai amar**”. If “**aprender**” is “to learn”, what would “you guys are going to learn” be? “**vocês vão aprender**”. If “**pedir**” means “to ask for”, how would you say “*we* are going to ask for”?“**a gente vai pedir**”. Now, let’s talk about the conditional tense—how do we talk about things that we would hypothetically do. In Portuguese, this is super simple. All you do is add either “**ia**” or “iam” to
the end of a verb. So “I *would* speak” would be “Eu falaria”. “They *would* speak”—“eles falariam”. And the same goes for **ER and IR verbs**. With “comer” it’d be “comeria” and “comeriam”, and then “decidir” becomes “decidiria” and “decidiriam”. So if “**morar**” is “to live”, how would you say “you would live”? “**você moraria**”. If “**escrever**” means “to write”, how would you say “he would write”? “**ele escreveria**”. If “**voltar**” is “to go back”, what would “I would go back” be? “**eu voltaria**”. If “**abrir**” means “to open”, how would you say “*you guys* would open”? “**vocês abririam**”. Now,
the **conditional tense** does sound slightly more formal than the next two alternatives we’ll see, but it’s still used quite a bit in the spoken language so you definitely wanna know it. For example, “Se eu fosse você, eu **falaria** com ele” (If I were you, I would speak with him)—this is standard, textbook Portuguese. That said, in the spoken language, you’ll very often hear people using the **imperfect tense** to express the same idea. So in this example, “falaria” would get replaced by “**falava**”—“Se eu fosse você, eu *falava* com ele”. Another way of saying this would be with
the **imperfect of IR** plus the infinitive—“Se eu fosse você, eu ***ia falar*** com ele”. Now, we’re gonna move on to a special verb form called the subjunctive, which you use to express uncertain or hypothetical situations. Let’s take a look at the phrase: **“Ele fala inglês”**—“He speaks English”. At least in our minds, this is a fact, it’s a true statement. But what happens if we want to say “***I hope*** that he speaks English”. *In this case*, him speaking English, might not necessarily be true. We don’t know, it’s just something that we’re *hoping* is true. So in
Portuguese, to reflect this uncertainty, you’d say: **“Eu espero que ele *FALE* inglês”**. So it’s no longer “**fala**”, but now you’d say “*fale*”, which is a subjunctive form of the verb “falar”. More specifically, the ***present subjunctive*** since the main verb, “**espero**”, is in the present tense. So how do we form the **present subjunctive**? For AR verbs, you’re either going to replace the AR with an “E”—in this case, “fale”. Or an “E-M”—“falem”. And then for **ER and IR verbs**, it’s the opposite. You replace the ending with either an “A”—as in “coma” and “decida”. Or an “A-M”—comam” and
“decidam”. Just a few common phrases that you’ll need to follow up with the subjunctive are: “**Eu Espero que**” (I hope that), “**Eu quero que**” (I want), and “**É possível que**” (It’s possible that). So you can see, the common thread between these phrases is that whatever you say after isn’t certain to happen or be true. And that’s why they trigger the subjunctive. For example, “**Eu quero que você fale com ele**” (I want you to speak with him). Again, since this is just a hypothetical that I’m posing, I’d use the subjunctive—more specifically, the ***present subjunctive*** since my
initial verb, **“quero”** is in the present tense. So that was the **present subjunctive,** which we generally use when we’re speaking in the present tense. But what if instead of saying “I ***want*** you to speak with him”, we wanna say phrase It in the *past* tense and say: “I ***wanted*** you to speak with him”. In that case, we’d use the *past* subjunctive. So you’d **say:** “Eu queria que você FALASSE com ele”, “**falasse**” being the *past* subjunctive since you’re speaking in the **past** tense with “queria”. For AR verbs, the verb endings are “asse” as in “falasse”, and
“assem” as in “falassem”. For **ER verbs,** you’ve got “esse” as in “comesse”, and then “essem” as in “comessem”. And then finally for **IR verbs**, you have “isse” as in “decidisse” and then “issem” as in “decidissem”. Another super common use of the past subjunctive is in contrary-to-fact statements, like: “***If* you spoke English**”—“Se você FALASSE inglês”. “***If* they ate meat**”—“Se eles COMESSEM carne”. “***If* I decided to study**”—“Se eu DECIDISSE estudar”. And this is often followed by the conditional tense, which we’ll see in a lot of our examples later. Now, in addition to the present and past subjunctives,
there’s also a **future subjunctive** that we use when we’re talking about something that may or may not happen in the future. Let’s take for example the phrase: “**If they speak English, are you going to understand?**” Now in this context, “**if they speak English**” is referring a **hypothetical event** in the future, and so in Portuguese, this would trigger the future subjunctive. Which in this case, would be **“Se eles falarem inglês**, você vai entender?”, “**falarem**” being the future subjunctive of “falar”. So, the conjugations for the future subjunctive are *super* easy. For “I/you/he/she/and we”, nothing changes, so in
this case it’s just “falar”. For “they” and “you guys”, you just add an “E-M” at the end—“fa-lar-em”. And the same goes for **ER and IR** verbs—you’ve got “comer” and “comerem”, and then “decidir” and “decidirem”. Let’s take a look at some common use cases for the future subjunctive. “**SE** eu ficar…” (If I stay). “**QUANDO** vocês terminarem…” (When you guys finish). “**DEPOIS** que eles voltarem…”(After they get back). “**ASSIM** que a gente chegar..” (As soon as we arrive). So you see—what these phrases have in common is that they’re referring to an action that hasn’t yet happened, but that
may happen in the future. So what we just covered are **general** conjugation patterns that apply to most verbs in Portuguese, also known as regular verbs. Now, there’s a small group of verbs that we’re gonna cover (which I call “**The Dirty Dozen**”) that don’t follow a lot of the patterns that we just saw. Each one has it’s own unique set of conjugations that you’ll just have to learn separately. But they’re also some of the most *important* verbs to know. The first in the dirty dozen is the verb “ter”, which generally means “to have”. In the present
tense, you have “tenho”, “tem”, and “têm”. So **these two words** are both pronounced the same way—“tem”. For example: **Eu tenho dois irmãos** (I have two brothers). **Você tem irmãos?** (Do you have siblings?). **Eles têm três** cachorros (They have 3 dogs) In the past (preterite)—“tive”, “teve”, and “tiveram”. **Ontem eu tive uma reunião** (Yesterday I had a meeting) **Ela teve que voltar ontem** (She had to go back yesterday) **Eles tivɛram uma experiência incrível** (They had an incredible experience) In the past *imperfect*, you’ve got “tinha” and “tinham”. **Eu tinha que estudar todos os dias** (I would or used
to have to study every day) **Eles tinham dois carros** (They used to have two cars) To express the future: “vou ter”, “vai ter” and “vão ter”. **Eu vou ter que estudar mais** (I will or /I’m going to have to study more) **A gente vai ter muito trabalho** (We’re going to have a lot of work) **Vocês vão ter uma experiência incrível** (You guys are going to have an incredible experience) For the conditional, you’ve got “teria” and “teriam”. **Se eu falasse português, teria mais oportunidades** (If I spoke Portuguese, I’d have more opportunities) **Se eles trabalhassem mais, teriam
mais dinheiro** (If they worked more, they’d have more money) For the present subjunctive, you’ve got “tenha” and “tenham” **Eu espero que ela não tenha namorado** (I hope that she doesn’t have a boyfriend) **Eu duvido que eles tenham dinheiro** (I doubt that they have money) In the *past* subjunctive, you have “tivesse” and “tivessem” **Se eu tivɛsse dinheiro, compraria uma casa** (If I had money, I would buy a house) **Se vocês tivɛssem mais tempo, aprenderiam uma nova língua?** (If you guys had more time, would you learn a new language?) In the future subjunctive, it’s “tiver” and “tiverem”
**Quando eu tivɛr tempo, vou visitar São Paulo** (When I have time, I’m going to visit São Paulo) **Se eles tivɛrem que estudar, vão ficar em casa** (If they have to study, they’ll stay at home) The verb **“ter”** is also used as an auxiliary verb in compound tenses, much like in English how “have” is used in compound tenses like “I *have* spoken”, “I *had* spoken”, etc. Let’s take a look at how you’d say that you “***have* been doing something**”, as in “I *have* been speaking”. In this example, you’d say “**Eu tenho falado**”. So you’re just taking
the **present** **tense** of “ter”, and combining it with the **past Participle** of the verb. This is a little tricky, because if you translate it word-for-word, “tenho” is “**I have**”, and then “**falado**” would be “spoken”, but it doesn’t mean “I have spoken”—it really means “I have *been speaking*” (you’re implying that it’s been ongoing for some time) If you’ll recall, “I have spoken” would be “**Eu já falei**” (literally “I already spoke”). Compare that to “**Eu tenho falado**” (I have been speaking). So we have “tenho”, “tem”, and “têm”, combined with the past participle of the verb—in this case
“falado”, “**comido**”, and “**decidido**”. So generally speaking, the **past participle** for AR verbs is formed by replacing the AR with “ado”—so “falar” becomes “falado”. And then for **ER and IR verbs**, you’re just replacing the ending with “ido”, as in “comido” and “decidido”. If the verb “**desafinar**” means “to be out of tune or off-key”, what would its past participle be? “**Desafinado**”, which is the name of a very famous song by Tom Jobim. That said, there are some verbs that have irregular past participles, meaning they don’t follow the patterns we just saw. Some of the more common ones
are “**aberto**” (opened) from the verb “abrir” (to open), “**escrito**” (written) from the verb “escrever” (to write), “**feito**” (done) from the verb “fazer” (to do), “**visto**” (seen) from the verb “ver” (to see), and “**vindo**” (come) from the verb “vir” (to come). So if “**ajudar**” is “to help”, how would you say “I have been helping”? “**eu tenho ajudado**”. If “**correr**” means “to run”, how would you say “you have been running”? “**você tem corrido**”. If “**pedir**” is “to ask for”, how would you say “they’ve been asking for”? “**eles têm pedido**”. Now let’s talk about how you’d say that
you “***had* done something**”, as in “I *had* spoken”. In this example, you’d say “**Eu tinha falado**”. So here, you’re taking the past ***imperfect*** **tense** of “ter”, and combining it with the **past participle**. So it’s either going to be “tinha” or “tinham” plus the past participle, falado, comido, and decidido. So if “**fechar**” is “to close”, how would you say “I had closed”? “**eu tinha fechado**”. If “**assistir**” means “to watch”, how would you say “they had watched”? “**eles tinham assistido**”. If you wanna say that you “***would’ve* done something**”, as in “I *would’ve* spoken”, you’d say “**Eu teria
falado**”. So in this case, you’re taking the ***conditional*** **tense** of “ter”, and combining it with the **past participle**. So it’s either “teria” or “teriam”, falado, comido, and decidido. If “**mudar**” is “to change”, how would you say “I would’ve changed”? “**eu teria mudado**”. If “**seguir**” means “to follow”, how would you say “you guys would’ve followed”? “**vocês teriam seguido**”. Let’s look at this sentence for a minute—“**Eu espero que você fale com ele**” (I hope that you speak with him). So earlier, we talked about how, when we talk about something that may or may not happen, we use
this special verb form called the **subjunctive**. But what if instead of saying “I hope that you speak”, we wanna say “I hope that you spoke or *have spoken”?* In this case, it would be “**Eu espero que você *tenha* falado com ele”**. “**tenha**” as we saw earlier being the present subjunctive of “ter”. Here, it’s gonna be either “tenha” or “tenham” plus the past participle. One of the most common uses of this is in the phrase “**Espɛro que você tenha gostado**” (I hope you liked it). So we saw earlier how the **past subjunctive** is used when you’re
making a general hypothetical or contrary-to-fact statement, as in “Se você falasse inglês…” (If you spoke English…). But what if we wanted to say “If you *had* spoken English”, referring to a specific action that *could’ve* happened but didn’t. In that case, we’d say “**Se você *tivɛsse* falado inglês**”. So you’d either take the past subjunctive of “ter”, “tivesse” or “tivessem”, combined with the past participle. **Se a gente tivɛsse comido mais…** (If we’d eaten more…) **Se vocês tivɛssem decidido ficar em casa…** (If you guys had decided to stay at home…) The second verb in the dirty dozen is
“estar”, which generally means “to be” and is used to describe temporary states. In the present tense, you have “estou”, “está”, and “estão”. Now, in the **spoken language**, people will usually just drop the “E-S” and say “tô”, “tá” and “tão”. For example: **Eu estou** em São Paulo (I’m in São Paulo). **Você está** cansado**?** (Are you tired?). **Eles estão animados** (They’re excited). But in everyday speech, the “**E-S**” usually gets dropped and so what you’ll actually hear people say is: **Eu tô** em São Paulo, **Você tá** cansado**?**, and **Eles tão animados.** In the past (preterite)—“estive”, “esteve” and “estiveram”.
**Eu estive no Brasil ano passado** (I was in Brazil last year) **Ela esteve doente a semana inteira** (She was sick the entire week) **Eles já estiveram no Rio três vezes** (They’ve been to Rio three times) Once again, the “E-S” usually gets dropped in the spoken language, so you’ll hear “Eu tive”, “ela teve”, and “eles tiveram” In the past (imperfect), “estava” and “estavam”. **Eu estava** (or “Eu tava”) **muito cansado** (I was really tired) **Eles estavam** (or “eles tavam”) **animados** (They were excited) To express the future, we’d say “vou estar”, “vai estar” or “vão estar”. In the
**spoken language**, “estar” itself often gets shortened to just “tá”. So you’ll hear people say “vou tá”, “vai tá”, and “vão tá”. **Eu vou estar na praia (or “eu vou tá na praia”)** (I’m going to be at the beach) **A gente vai estar lá (or “a gente vai tá lá”)** (We’re going to be there) **Vocês vão estar muito cansados (or “Cês vão tá muito cansados”)** (You guys are going to be really tired) In the conditional—“estaria” and “estariam”. **Se eu fosse você, eu estaria preocupado** (If I were you, I would be worried) **Se eles não tivɛssem que
estudar, estariam aqui** (If they didn’t have to work, they’d be here) In the present subjunctive, we have “esteja” and “estejam”. **Espero que esteja tudo bem com você** (I hope that everything is well with you) **Espero que vocês estejam bem** (I hope that you guys are well, or doing well) In the past subjunctive—“estivesse” and “estivessem” **Se você estivɛsse aqui comigo…** (If you were here with me…) **Se eles estivɛssem no Brasil…** (If they were in Brazil…) Then in the future subjunctive—“estiver” and “estiverem”. **Quando eu estiver no Brasil, vou visitar meu amigo** (When I’m in Brazil, I’m going
to visit my friend) **Quando vocês estivɛrem em Los Angeles, me avisem** (When you guys are in Los Angeles, let me know) Again, in everyday speech people will usually drop the “E-S” here and just say “tiver” and “tiverem”. Now, **“estar”** is also used as an auxiliary verb in continuous tenses, like in English how you’d say “I *am* speaking” or “I *was* speaking”, when you wanna emphasize that something is in progress at a specific point in time. Let’s take a look at how “estar” is used to say “**I’m speaking**”, “I’m Eating”, “I’m deciding”, etc. To say “I’m
speaking”, you’d say “**Eu estou”**, or “eu tô”—falando. So you’re just taking the **present** **tense** of “estar”, and combining it with the **gerund** of the verb, which is like the equivalent of the “I-N-G” verb form in English (like “speaking” or “eating”, etc). And to form the gerund, all you do is replace the final “r” with “n-d-o”. And this goes for all verbs. So “falar” becomes “falando”, “comer”—“comendo”, “decidir”—“decidindo” There’s a song by Tom Jobim called “Falando de amor” (speaking of love). So “I’m speaking” would be “**Eu estou**” or “Eu tô” falando. “He’s eating” would be “**Ele está**”
or “tá comendo”. And then “they’re deciding” would be “**Eles estão**” or “tão decidindo”. And the same goes for the *past* continuous as well. So “I was speaking”—“**eu estava**” or “eu tava falando”. “They were eating”—“**Eles estavam**” or “tavam comendo”. Verb #3 in the dirty dozen is “IR”, which means “to go”. In the present tense, these should look familiar—you’ve got “vou”, “vai” and “vão”. Now, I did wanna point out the “nós” form here—“vamos”—because it’s actually very common in the spoken language. So you’ll hear both “a gente vai” as well as “vamos” in conversational Portuguese to say “we
go”. **Eu vou pra academia todos os dias** (I go to the gym every day) **Você vai pra Curitiba?** (Are you going to Curitiba?) **Eles vão pra aula todos os dias** (They go to class every day) In the past preterite, you have “fui”, “foi”, and “foram”. **Eu fui pra academia** (I went to the gym) **Você foi pra Curitiba?** (Did you go to Curitiba?) **Eles foram pra aula** (They went to class) In the past *imperfect*, there’s “ia” and “iam” **Eu ia pra academia todos os dias** (I would/used to go to the gym every day) **Eles iam pra
aula todos os dias** (They would/used to go to class every day) Now, to express the future with “ir”, you’re basically just using the present tense. Since it would be redundant to use “ir” twice, all you really need to say is “vou”, “vai” or “vão”. For the conditional, you’ve got “iria” and “iriam”. **Se eu fosse você, eu não iria** (If I were you, I wouldn’t go) **Se eles pudessem, iriam todos os dias** (If they could, they would go every day) In the present subjunctive, you’ve got “vá” and “vão”. **Eu quero que você vá também** (I want
you to go too) **Eu espero que eles vão** (I hope that they go) For the past subjunctive—“fosse” and “fossem”. **Se eu fosse pro Brasil, teria que aprender português** (If I went to Brazil, I would have to learn Portuguese) **Eu não queria que eles fossem** (I didn’t want them to go) In the future subjunctive, we have “for” and “forem”. **Se ele for, eu não vou** (If he goes, I’m not going) **Se vocês forem, me avisem** (If you guys go, let me know) The fourth verb on the list is “ser”, which like “estar” can also be translated
as “to be”, but describes more permanent states or longer-lasting characteristics. In the present tense, there’s “sou”, “é”, and “são”. **Eu sou de Los Angeles** (I‘m from Los Angeles) **Você é brasileiro?** (Are you Brazilian?) **Eles são altos** (They‘re tall) In the past preterite—“fui”, “foi”, and “foram”—so same conjugations as the verb “ir” **Eu fui a primeira pessoa a chegar** (I was the first person to arrive) **Foi uma experiência incrível** (It was an incredible experience) **Eles foram muito legais comigo** (They were really nice to me) In the past imperfect—“era” and “eram”. These are used a lot to describe
how someone or something was in the past. **Ele ɛra muito alto** (He was really tall) **Eles ɛram bons amigos** (They were good friends) To express the future—“vou ser”, “vai ser”, and “vão ser”. **Eu vou ser mais disciplinado** (I’m going to be more disciplined) **Vai ser muito difícil** (It’s going to be really hard) **Eles vão ser bem-sucedidos** (They’re going to be successful) For the conditional, you have “seria” and “seriam” **Seria muito legal** (That would be really cool) **Eles seriam os candidatos perfeitos** (They would be the perfect candidates) In the present subjunctive—“seja” and “sejam” **Quero que ele
seja muito feliz** (I want him to be really happy) **Espero que eles sejam legais** (I hope that they’re cool) For the past subjunctive, we have “fosse” and “fossem”. **Se eu fosse rico, eu viajaria pelo mundo** (If I were rich, I would travel around the world) **Se Todos Fossem Iguais a Você** (If Everyone Were Just Like You), which is actually a song by Jobim In the future subjunctive, you have “for” and “forem”. **Se eu for escolhido, eu vou** (If I’m chosen, I’ll go) **Se eles forem aceitos, eles vão** (If they get accepted, they’ll go) Verb number
five of the dirty dozen is “fazer” (to do). Starting with the present tense: “faço”, “faz”, and “fazem”. **Eu faço ioga quasi todos os dias** (I do yoga almost every day) **Você faz jiu-jitsu?** (Do you do jiu-jitsu?) **Eles sempre fazem isso** (They always do that) Then in the past preterite—“fiz”, “fez”, and “fizeram”. **Eu não fiz nada** (I didn’t do anything) **O que ele fez?** (What did he do?) **Eles nunca fizɛram isso** (They never did that) The past imperfect—“fazia”, “faziam”. **Eu fazia ioga quasi todos os dias** (I would/used to do yoga almost every day) **Eles sempre faziam
isso** (They would/used to always do that) For the future—“vou/vai/vão fazer” **Eu vou fazer ioga amanhã** (I’m going to do yoga tomorrow) **O que a gente vai fazer?** (What are we going to do?) **Eles não vão fazer nada** (They’re not going to do anything) In the conditional, you’ve got “faria” and “fariam” **O que você faria nessa situação?** (What would you do in that situation?) **Eles nunca fariam isso** (They would never do that) This is the thumbnail of a video, where it quotes UFC fighter Gilbert Burns as saying: “Se eu fosse o Charles do Bronx” (If I
were Charles do Bronx, as in Charles Oliveira”), “não **faria** isso” (I wouldn’t do that). In the present subjunctive, we have “faça” and “façam” **Eu espero que ele não faça isso** (I hope that he doesn’t do that) **Eu não quero que vocês façam isso** (I don’t want you guys to do that) For the past subjunctive, you’ve got “fizesse” and “fizessem” **Eu não queria que você fizɛsse isso** (I didn’t want you to do that) **Eu não esperava que eles fizɛssem isso** (I didn’t expect them to do that) And then in the future subjunctive—“fizer” and “fizerem”. **Se eu
fizɛr ioga amanhã, te aviso** (If I do yoga tomorrow, I’ll let you know) **Se eles fizɛrem ioga amanhã, vão me avisar** (If they do yoga tomorrow, they’ll let me know) Number six on our list in “dar”, which generally means “to give” but is used in a ton of different contexts. In the present, you have “dou”, “dá”, and “dão”. **Eu sempre dou o meu melhor** (I always give my best) **Você dá aula?** (Do you give lessons?) **Eles dão muito dinheiro** (They give a lot of money) The past preterite—“dei”, “deu”, and “dɛram”. **Eu dei o meu melhor**
(I gave my best) **A gente deu um presente pra ele** (We gave him a present) **Eles dɛram muito dinheiro** (They gave a lot of money) In the past imperfect, we have “dava” and “davam” **Eu dava aula de inglês** (I would/used to give English lessons) **Eles me davam muito dinheiro** (They would/used to give me a lot of money) To express the future, again, “vou”, “vai”, “vão dar”. In the conditional—“daria” and “dariam” **Eu não daria dinheiro pra ele** (I wouldn’t give him money) **Eles dariam tudo por ela** (They would give anything for her) The present subjunctive—“dê” and
“deem” **Eu espero que tudo dê certo** (I hope that everything works out) **Eu quero que vocês deem uma olhada** (I want you guys to take a look) In the past subjunctive, you have “dɛsse” and “dɛssem”. **Se eu dɛsse dinheiro pra ele…** (If I gave him money…) **Eu não queria que eles me dɛssem dinheiro** (I didn’t want them to give me money) And in the future subjunctive, “dɛr” and “dɛrem” **Se eu dɛr dinheiro pra ele, vai gastar tudo** (If I give him money, he’s going to spend everything) **Se vocês me dɛrem uma chance, vou fazer meu
melhor** (If you guys give me a chance, I’ll do my best) Number 7 of the dirty dozen is the verb “vir”, which means “to come”. In the present tense, we’ve got “venho”, “vem”, and “vêm”—so both of these are both pronounced the same way—“vem”. **Eu venho aqui todos os dias** (I come here every day) **Você vem amanhã?** (Are you coming tomorrow?) **Eles vêm hoje** (They’re coming today) In the past preterite—“vim”, “veio”, and “vieram”. **Eu vim aqui ontem** (I came here yesterday) **Você veio ontem?** (Did you come yesterday?) **Eles viɛram para aprender português** (They came to learn
Portuguese) The past imperfect—“vinha” and “vinham”. **Eu vinha aqui todos os dias** (I would/used to come here every day) **Vocês vinham aqui todos os dias?** (You guys would/used to come here every day?) In the future—vou/vai/ & vão vir For the conditional, it’s “viria” and “viriam”. **Se eu pudɛsse, viria aqui todos os dias** (If I could, I’d come here every day) **Se eles pudɛssem, viriam aqui todos os dias** (If they could, they’d come here every day) In the present subjunctive, we’ve got “venha” and “venham”. **Eu espero que ele venha** (I hope that he comes) **Eu quero que
eles venham** (I want them to come) For the past subjunctive, you have “viesse” and “viessem”. **Eu esperava que ele viɛsse** (I expected him to come) **Eu queria que vocês viɛssem** (I want you guys to come) Then in the future subjunctive, it’s “vier” and “vierem”. **Se ele viɛr amanhã, vou ficar muito feliz** (If he comes tomorrow, I’m going to be really happy) **Se vocês viɛrem, vou ficar muito feliz** (If you guys come, I’m going to be really happy) Verb number 8 is “poder” (to be able to). In the present tense, you’ve got “posso”, “pode”, and “podem”.
Just a reminder that we’re only using this pink symbol as a tool to help remind us that it should be pronounced with an open O, as in the “awe” in “awesome”. The **standard** spelling is just with a regular “O”. **Eu pɔsso vir amanhã** (I can come tomorrow) **Você pɔde vir hoje?** (Can you come today?) **Eles não pɔdem vir** (They can’t come) In the past preterite, we have “pude”, “pôde”, and “puderam”. **Eu pude convencer o Marco** (I was able to convince Marco) **Ele não pôde ir porque estava doente** (He wasn’t able to go because he was
sick) **Eles não pudɛram salvar a menina** (They weren’t able to save the girl) So when the preterite of “poder” is used, it tells us whether or not the subject succeeded in doing whatever it was they were trying to do. In the past imperfect, you’ve got “podia” and “podiam”. **Eu achava que podia convencer o Marco** (I thought that I could convince Marco) **Eles não podiam salvar a menina** (They couldn’t save the girl) Now whereas the preterite of “poder” tells us whether someone actually succeeded in doing something—in the imperfect tense, it only tells us whether they were
*capable* of doing it. In the future, vou/vai/& vão poder. For the conditional, we’ve got “poderia” and “poderiam”. **Você poderia me ajudar?** (Would you be able to help me?) **Eles poderiam te ajudar** (They would be able to help you) The present subjunctive—“possa” and “possam”. **Eu espero que você pɔssa fazer** (I hope that you’re able to do it) **Eu espero que eles pɔssam ficar** (I hope that they’re able to stay) In the past subjunctive, you have “pudesse” and “pudessem”. **Se eu pudɛsse, eu moraria em Paris** (If I could, I would live in Paris) **Se vocês pudɛssem, morariam
no Rio?** (If you guys could, would you live in Rio?) Then the future subjunctive—“puder” and “puderem” **Quando você pudɛr, me liga** (When you can, give me a call) **Eles vão vir assim que pudɛrem** (They’ll come as soon as they can) Number 9 on our list is “querer” (to want). In the present tense, you have “quero”, “quer” and “querem”. **Eu quɛro aprender português** (I want to learn Portuguese) **A gente quɛr ir pro Brasil** (We want to go to Brazil) **Vocês quɛrem vir comigo?** (Do you guys want to come with me?) For the past preterite—“quis” and “quiseram”
**Eu sempre quis aprender português** (I’ve always wanted to learn Portuguese) **Eles sempre quisɛram visitar Nova York** (They’ve always wanted to visit New York) In the past imperfect, there’s “queria” and “queriam”. **Eu queria te perguntar uma coisa** (I wanted to ask you something) **Eles queriam te conhecer** (They wanted to meet you) To express the future, vou/vai/&vão querer. Now, for the conditional, it’s technically “quereria” and “quereriam”, but this is another verb where people tend to just replace with the imperfect in the spoken language. In the present subjunctive, you’ve got “queira” and “queiram”. **Caso você queira…** (In case
you want to…) **Vamos supor que vocês queiram comprar uma casa** (Let’s suppose that you guys want to buy a house) In the past subjunctive, it’s “quisesse” and “quisessem”. **Se eu quisɛsse, eu conseguiria** (If I wanted it, I would get it) **Eles podiam fazer o que quisɛssem** (They could do whatever they wanted) Then in the future subjunctive, we’ve got “quiser” and “quiserem”. **Se você quisɛr, pode vir comigo** (If I want, you can come with me) **Se eles quisɛrem, podem vir também** (If they want, they can come too) Verb number 10 of the dirty dozen is “saber”
(to know) In the present tense, we have “sei”, “sabe”, and “sabem”. **Eu sei que é difícil** (I know that it’s hard) **Ele não sabe nada** (He doesn’t know anything) **Não sei se vocês sabem** (I don’t know if you guys know) In the past preterite, you have “soube” and “souberam”. Now, in the preterite, “saber” can often be translated as “to hear” or “find out about something”. **Eu soube que ele queria falar comigo** (I heard/found out that he wanted to talk with me) **Vocês soubɛram o que aconteceu comigo?** (Did you guys hear what happened to me?) In
the past imperfect—“sabia” and “sabiam”. **Eu não sabia o que fazer** (I didn’t know what to do) **Vocês sabiam disso?** (Did you guys know that?) In the future, vou/vai/ & vão saber. In the conditional, you’ve got “saberia” and “saberiam”. **Eu não saberia explicar isso** (I wouldn’t know how to explain that) **Poucas pessoas saberiam explicar isso** (Few people would know how to explain that) The present subjunctive—“saiba” and “saibam” **Vamos supor que você saiba falar chinês** (Let’s suppose that you know how to speak Chinese) **Eu quero que eles saibam que…** (I want them to know that…) In the
past subjunctive, we have “soubesse” and “soubessem” **Eu não queria que ninguém soubesse** (I didn’t want anyone to know/find out) **Eu queria que eles soubessem que…** (I wanted them to know that…) Then the future subjunctive—“souber” and “souberem”. **Ele vai ficar furioso quando soubɛr disso** (He’s going to be furious when he hears about this) **Quando eles soubɛrem disso, vão ficar feliz** (When they hear about this, they’ll be happy) Number 11 of the dirty dozen is the verb “ver”, which means “to see”. In the present, you have “vejo”, “vê”, and “veem”. **Eu não vejo você** (I don’t see
you) **A gente não vê ninguém** (We don’t see anyone) **Vocês me veem?** (Do you guys see me) In the past preterite, “vi”, “viu”, “viram” **Eu não vi nada** (I didn’t see anything) **Você não me viu?** (You didn’t see me?) **Eles ainda não viram as fotos** (They still haven’t seen the pictures) For the past imperfect, there’s “via” and “viam” **Eu via o Marco todos os dias** (I would/used to see Marco every day) **Eles viam o Thiago direto** (They would/used to see Thiago all the time) To express the future, vou/vai/& vão ver. In the conditional, we have
“veria” and “veriam” **Se eu tivɛsse mais tempo, veria mais filmes** (If I had more time, I would watch more movies)…so “ver” can mean “watch” as well, in the sense of watching a movie. **Se eles viajassem mais, veriam o mundo de uma outra maneira** (If they travelled more, they would see the world differently) For the present subjunctive, you have “veja” and “vejam”. **É importante que você veja o lado positivo** (It’s important that you see the positive side) **Eu espero que vocês vejam meu amigo** (I hope you that you guys see my friend) In the past subjunctive—“visse”,
and “vissem” **Se eu visse o Paulo, eu não falaria com ele** (If I saw Paulo, I wouldn’t talk to him) **Se vocês vissem o Gui agora, ficariam impressionados** (If you guys saw Gui now, you’d be impressed) And then the future subjunctive is “vir” and “virem” **Se você vir o Marco, me avisa** (If you see Marco, let me know) **Se vocês virem o filme, vão chorar** (If you guys see the movie, you’re going to cry) Now, that said, what you’ll probably more likely hear in everyday speech is **“ver” and “verem”**, even though they’re grammatically incorrect. And
then finally, our last verb of the dirty dozen is “trazer” (to bring) In the present, you have “trago”, “traz”, and “trazem”. **Eu sempre trago as bebidas** (I always bring the drinks) **Ele nunca traz nada** (He never brings anything) **Eles nunca trazem presentes** (They never bring gifts) In the past preterite, you have “trouxe” and “trouxeram”. **Eu trouxe os livros** (I brought the books) **Eles trouxɛram muita comida** (They brought a lot of food) In the past imperfect, we’ve got “trazia” and “traziam”. **Eu sempre trazia as bebidas** (I would/used to always bring the drinks) **Eles nunca traziam presentes**
(They would/used to never bring gifts) In the future, vou/vai/& vão trazer The conditional is “traria” and “trariam”. **Se eu fosse você, eu não traria nada** (If I were you, I wouldn’t bring anything) **Se eles pudessem, trariam tudo** (If they could, they would bring everything) In the present subjunctive, you have “traga” and “tragam” **Eu espero que ele traga os livros** (I hope that he brings the books) **Eu não quero que vocês tragam nada** (I don’t want you guys to bring anything) The past subjunctive—“trouxesse” and “trouxessem”. **Ele queria que eu trouxɛsse os livros** (He wanted me to
bring the books) **Eu não queria que vocês trouxɛssem nada** (I didn’t want you guys to bring anything) And then in the future subjunctive, there’s “trouxer” and “trouxerem”. **Se eu trouxɛr minha amiga, você vem?** (If I bring my friend, will you come?) **Se eles trouxɛrem a amiga deles, eu venho** (If they bring their friend, I’ll come) So the twelve verbs that we just went over are also known as *irregular* verbs, since they don’t follow a lot of the regular conjugation patterns. Now, these aren’t the only irregular verbs in Portuguese, but these are the ones that you’ll
use most in everyday conversations. For example, two other irregular verbs that you’ll *eventually* want to learn are **“dizer”** (to say or tell) and “pôr” (to put). The reason I decided not to include these in the tutorial is because, in the **spoken language**, “dizer” oftens gets replaced by **“falar”**, and “pôr” usually gets replaced by “colocar”. Both of which are regular verbs, and so they’re easier to learn. So besides the dirty dozen, I wanted to point out a few commonly used verbs that we’ll call “**semi-irregular verbs**”. These follow the regular conjugation patterns for the most part, but
do have some quirks in the present tense. For example, the verb “**odiar**”, which means “to hate”. In the present tense, it’s “odeio”, “odeia” and “odeiam”. With “**ler**” (to read), you have “leio”, “lê”, and “leem”. For the verb “**rir**” (to laugh), you’ve got “rio”, “ri” and “riem”. Likewise with “**sorrir**” (to smile), it’s “sorrio”, “sorri”, and “sorriem”. Then you have some verbs that have quirks just in the “I-form” of the present tense. For example, with the verb “**dormir**”—“I sleep” is “eu durmo”—so the “o” changes to a “u”. For the verb “**sentir**”—“I feel” is “eu sinto”—here, the “e”
changes to an “i”. You’ll see this type of change in a lot of verbs like “**preferir**”—“I prefer” is “eu prefiro”. “**divertir**” (divirto). “**seguir**” (sigo). and “**conseguir**” (consigo). Some other changes you’ll see are with the verb “**pedir”**—“I ask for” is “eu peço”. **“ouvir”**—“I hear” is “eu ouço”. And then “**perder**”—“I lose” is “eu perco”. Now, there are a lot more verbs that have these types of quirks, but these are some of the more common ones that you’ll come across in everyday speech. So the present subjunctive form for these verbs will be irregular as well, and the way
You form them is by taking the “I-form” of the present tense and changing the final -o to an -a. So for example, “durmo” becomes “durma” and “durmam”. Now, let’s take a look at the imperative, or “command form”—in other words, how do we tell someone to do or not do something. So in standard Portuguese, the imperative is just the same as the present subjunctive. This is what you’ll see in formal, written communications like advertisements, signs, notices. So if you go to a company’s website, on the contact page it’ll often say “**Fale** conosco”—“Speak with us”. When you’re
in Brazil, you’ll see this sign everywhere—“Pare” from the verb “**parar**” (to stop). In the spoken language, though, people will often just use the regular present tense conjugation of “você” as the imperative. So, for example: “Fala mais alto” (talk louder). Compare that to the standard form “**fale**”, which would sound a bit more formal.“**Vem comigo**” (come with me). Compare “**vem**” with the standard “venha”. Now, if you wanna tell someone “Let’s do something”, all you do is say “**Vamos**” and then add the infinitive. So “**Let’s talk to him**” would be “Vamos falar com ele”. “**Let’s eat**”—“Vamos comer”. Now,
I wanna talk about a really important concept called “the personal infinitive”. Let’s take a look at this phrase: “**É importante falar português**” (It’s important To speak Portuguese). So when a verb like “falar” is used in this context to make a general statement— it’s called the “**impersonal infinitive**”—it’s impersonal because it’s not talking about anyone in specific. This is the quote unquote “normal” infinitive that we’ve seen so far. But in Portuguese, the infinitive can also have a subject of its own. For example: **“É importante *eles falarem* português”** (It’s important *for them* to speak Portuguese). “falarem” being a
form of the so-called the “**personal infinitive**”—so you’re actually conjugating the infinitive to agree with the **subject**, which in this case is “eles”. In other words, you’re “personalizing the infinitive”—it’s no longer a general Statement, it’s now specific to an individual, or in this case, individuals. So the forms of the personal infinitive are *really* simple. Regardless of the type of verb, the only thing that changes is in the **3rd person plural**, where you add an “E-M” at the end of the verb. So “falar” becomes “falarem”, “comer” becomes “comerem” and “decidir” becomes “decidirem”. And this applies to ALL
verbs in Portuguese. This includes those in the dirty dozen. With “estar”, you have “estar” and “estarem”. “**fazer**”—“fazer” and “fazerem”. and “**ter**”—“ter” and “terem”. So there are no irregular forms of the personal infinitive. Let’s take a look at a few more examples. **Acho melhor vocês não irem** (I think it’s better for you guys not to go) **Acho bom a gente chegar lá cedo** (I think it’s good for us to get there early) **Ele saiu sem eu saber** (He left without me knowing) So we’ve just covered pretty much all the verb forms you’ll need to communicate in
everyday, conversational Portuguese. If you’d like to have a PDF guide of this tutorial for reference, you’ll find the link below in the description. Now if you wanna make more sense of the *pronunciation* of what we just went over, check out my intro To Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation next. Obrigado!
