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The verb ser is used for conditions or characteristics that are permanent and the
verb estar is used for transitory or not permanent conditions or characteristics.
Compare:
• Maria é bonita (Maria is beautiful) – Maria is really beautiful, maybe since she was
born.
• Maria está bonita (Maria is beautiful) – In that moment Maria is beautiful, but maybe
she doesn’t look beautiful all the time.
Usually, we Brazilians don’t use the person “tu” to refer to the person you. But in
some regions in Brazil, people use “tu” but in an “incorrect” way, along with the verb that
should be used for the person "você". It’s known that only in Santa Catarina (South) and
Maranhão (Northeast) people use “tu” correctly.
For example, if you read Portuguese Grammar books that are taught in schools here in
Brazil, you’ll see the following conjugation for the verb ser:
1 Eu sou
Singular 2 Tu és
3 Ele / Ela / Você é
1 Nós somos
Plural 2 Vós sois
3 Eles / Elas / Vocês são
Here in Brazil, “Vós” is rarely used and “Tu” is usually used with the verb conjugated
for the persons “Ele”,“Ela” and “Você”.
For a better comprehension of the verbs and persons, it is good to separate what is
singular from what is plural. Eu (I), você (you), ele (he), ela (she), isso (that), isto (this) a
gente (it means “we” – but it is a singular noun) and any other singular words are in the singular
section. Nós (we), eles (they), elas (they, but just for a group of women or feminine
nouns), vocês (you) and all plural words, are in the plural section.
Let’s study the chart for didactics purpose.
Verb “ser”
Eu sou
Singular
Ele / Ela / Você/ Isso / Isto / A gente /
é
Singular words
Nós somos
Plural
Eles / Elas / Vocês / Plural words são
Examples:
• Eu sou feliz. (I’m happy.)
• Ela é inglesa. (She is English.)
• Nós somos primos. (We are cousins.)
Verb “estar”
Eu estou
Singular
Ele / Ela / Você/ Isso / Isto / A gente / Singular
está
words
Nós estamos
Plural
Eles / Elas / Vocês / Plural words estão
Examples:
• Eu estou doente. (I’m sick.)
• Nós estamos com fome. (We are hungry.)
• Vocês estão cansados? (Are you tired?)
Note:
Both “a gente” and “nós” mean “we”, but “a gente” is more colloquial and informal than
“nós”. “A gente” is a singular word and “nós” is plural.
Compare:
Important Note:
When referring to a place that a person is located, the verb “estar” must be used, and when
referring to a place that a person is from, the verb “ser” is used.
Compare:
• Eu estou em São Paulo. (I’m in São Paulo.) - Observe that in this example the verb estar was
used.
• Eu sou de São Paulo. (I’m from São Paulo.) - Observe that in this example the verb ser was
used.
Important Note:
Compare:
In Portuguese there are 3 different classes of verbs: verbs ending in “ar”, verbs
ending in “er”, verbs ending in “ir”. Each class of regular verbs has its own pattern of
termination when conjugated.
When conjugating regular verbs in Portuguese you just have to preserve the root of
the verb and substitute“ar”, “er” or “ir” for the following bold terminations:
Singular
Plural
Eles/ Elas/
amam comem abrem
Vocês
Examples:
• Eu amo. (I love.)
• Ela ama. (She loves)
• Ele ama. (He loves)
• Você ama. (You love)
• A gente ama. (We love)
• Nós amamos. (We love)
• Eles amam. (They love)
• Vocês amam. (You love)
Verbs ending in “ir” having the vowel “e” at the second-to-the-last syllable have the root
changed when they are conjugated in the Present tense. The vowel “e” is changed for “i” just
for the first person“eu”. The other conjugations follow the same pattern that is presented
above:
Vestir Mentir
Person
(to wear) (to lie)
Eu visto minto
Singular
Plural
Examples:
• Eu minto. (I lie)
• Ela mente. (She lies)
• Ele mente. (He lies)
• Você mente. (You lie)
• A gente mente. (We lie)
• Nós mentimos. (We lie)
• Eles mentem. (They lie)
• Vocês mentem. (You lie)
Verbs ending in “ir” having the vowel “o” at the second-to-the-last syllable have the root
changed when they are conjugated in the Present tense. The vowel “o” is changed for “u” just
for the first person “eu”.
Dormir Descobrir
Person
(to sleep) (to discover)
Eu durmo descubro
Singular
Plural
Examples:
• Eu durmo cedo. (I sleep early)
• Ela dorme cedo. (She sleeps early)
• Ele dorme cedo.. (He sleeps early)
• Você dorme cedo.. (You sleep early)
• A gente dorme cedo.. (We sleep early)
• Nós dormimos cedo.. (We sleep early)
• Eles dormem cedo.. (They sleep early)
• Vocês dormem cedo.. (You sleep early)
Present Progressive (Present Continuous) – refers to an action that is happening or “going on”
right now.
Example:
Observe that in English to compose that structure, was used the person I, verb to
be conjugated according to the person - “I am” and the action that is happening with the
suffix “ing” added to the verb.
Forming this kind of structure in Portuguese is easy and very similar to English. You just
need the person, conjugate in the present tense verb estar according to the person that you
want to refer, and finally use theaction that is going on right now.
There are 3 equivalents for “ing” in Portuguese. Each equivalent depends on the
termination of the verb in its infinitive form.
Examples:
When studying irregular verbs in the present tense, we strongly suggest you to
memorize each conjugation. Observe that the persons “nós” are always regular which means
that the principle about the simple present conjugation can be applied.
Singular
Ele / Ela /
faz ouve vai dá
Você / A gente
Plural
Eles/ Elas/
fazem ouvem vão dão
Vocês
Examples:
Singular
Ele / Ela /
Você / A tem diz sabe põe
gente
Plural
Eles/ Elas/
têm dizem sabem põem
Vocês
Examples:
Derived forms of the verbs have the same changes that the simple verbs do. Therefore
the verbs in the list below must be conjugated as the simple verb in the charts above.
Fazer
Desfazer (to undo, unpack)
Refazer (to redo)
Ter
Obter (obtain)
Manter (keep, maintain)
Pôr
Compôr (to compose)
Supôr (to suppose)
Examples:
The Simple Past – Passado Perfeito – is used to refer to actions that happened or were
completed in a recent past. The Simple Past refers to completed actions that had a definite
beginning and a definite end.
In Portuguese there are 3 different classes of verbs: verbs ending in “ar”, verbs
ending in “er”, verbs ending in “ir”. Each class of regular verbs has its own pattern of
termination when conjugated in the past.
When conjugating regular verbs in the simple past form, you just have to preserve the
root of the verb and substitute “ar”, “er” or “ir” for the following bold terminations:
Singular
Plural
Example:
• Eu amei. (I loved)
• Ela amou. (She loved)
• Ele amou. (He loved)
• A gente amou. (We loved)
• Nós amamos. (We loved)
• Eles amaram. (They loved)
• Vocês amaram. (You loved)
For verbs ending in “gar” and “car, the first person “eu” is conjugated using the
termination “guei” and“quei”, as you can observe in the chart below.
Chegar Marcar
Person
(to arrive) (to mark)
Eu cheguei marquei
Singular
Plural
Examples:
• Eu cheguei tarde.(I arrived late.)
• Ela chegou tarde.(She arrived late.)
• Ele chegou tarde. (He arrived late.)
• Você chegou tarde. (You arrived late.)
• A gente chegou tarde. (We arrived late.)
• Nós chegamos tarde. (We arrived late.)
• Eles chegaram tarde. (They arrived late.)
• Vocês chegaram tarde. (You arrived late)
Fazer
Querer Ir Ter
Person (to make / to
(to want) (to go) (to have)
do)
Singular
Ele / Ela /
Você / A fez quis foi teve
gente
Plural
Eles/ Elas/
fizeram quiseram foram tiveram
Vocês
Examples:
Singular
Ele / Ela /
Você / A disse pôde soube trouxe
gente
Plural
Eles/ Elas/
disseram puderam souberam trouxeram
Vocês
Examples:
To conjugate the future you can use either a simple tense or a compound tense. To
form a simple tense you just use one verb - the main verb - and to form a compound tense you
must use two verbs - an auxiliary verb and the main verb.
Usually in Brazil people express future using compound tenses. Compound sentences
are formed conjugating the auxiliary verb “ir” (to go) in the present followed by the main verb
in its infinitive form.
Before seeing and studying compound sentences in the future, let’s see the
terminations used for the simple tense. You have already learned that when conjugating regular
verbs, you need to preserve the root of the verb in the infinitive form and
substitute “ar”, “er” or “ir” for specific terminations, according to the tense you want to get
the verb conjugated.
For the future tense, you have to replace ar,er, and ir for the following bold terminations:
Future – Simple tense
Singular
Ele / Ela /
amará comerá abrirá
Você A gente
Plural
Eles/ Elas/
amarão comerão abrirão
Vocês
Examples:
Singular
Ele / Ela /
Você / A vai amar vai comer vai abrir
gente
Plural
Eles/ Elas/
vão amar vão comer vão abrir
Vocês
Examples:
Study the conjugation of verb tener (to have) in the present tense:
Singular
He has / She has / You have
Ele / Ela / Você / a gente tem
/ We have
Plural
Examples:
2. To express that someone has to do something. In this case it is necessary to use the following
formula: (person) + ter (conjugated according to the person) + que + verb in the infinitive
form.
Examples:
Verb - Imperfect
Two different kinds of tenses are used to express or indicate actions that happened in
the past. In the lesson about Simple Past – Passado Perfeito, you can see that it is used to refer
to actions that were completed in a recent past. Basically, the Simple Past refers to completed
actions that have a definite beginning and a definite end.
The Imperfect tense – Passado Imperfeito – is used to refer to past actions that are not
seen as completed, actions that were in progress without a definite beginning or end, or actions
that were in progress when another event occurred. A good translation for this kind of
sentences is the progressive form (I was, she was, he was, it was, we were, they were….doing
something) . Observe that you can use a compound tense, using the verb “to be” (estar)
conjugated in the Imperfect tense along with the main verb in the gerund form or a simple
tense. Compare the examples below:
(Verbs in the gerund forms are those that have the terminations ando, endo or indo added to
their roots)
Example:
(compound tense) Eu estava cozinhando quando meu irmão me chamou. I was cooking when my
brother called.
(simple tense) Eu cozinhava quando meu irmão me chamou. I was cooking when my brother
called.
The imperfect indicates a habit that a person used to do. A habit is a group of actions that were
repeated many times, habitually.
Example:
Examples:
When conjugating regular verbs in the Imperfect tense, you just have to preserve the root of
the verb and substitute the terminations “ar”, “er” or “ir” for the following bold terminations:
Singular
Ele / Ela / Você /
amava comia abria
A gente
Plural
Examples:
Eu comia em casa quando Keyleigh chegou – I was eating at home when Keyleigh arrived.
Ele comia em casa quando Keyleigh chegou – He was eating at home when Keyleigh arrived.
Você comia em casa quando Keyleigh chegou – You were eating at home when Keyleigh arrived.
A gente comia em casa quando Keyleigh chegou – We were eating at home when Keyleigh
arrived.
(nós) Comíamos em casa quando Keyleigh chegou – We were eating at home when Keyleigh
arrived.
Eles comiam em casa quando Keyleigh chegou – They were eating at home when Keyleigh
arrived.
Vocês comiam em casa quando Keyleigh chegou – You were eating at home when Keyleigh
arrived.
Ser Ir Ter
Person
(to be) (to go) (to have)
Eu era ia tinha
Singular
Ele / Ela / Você / A
era ia tinha
gente
Nós éramos íamos tínhamos
Plural
Eles/ Elas/ Vocês eram iam tinham
Examples:
Eu era uma criança quando (eu) visitei o Brasil.– I was a kid when I visited Brazil.
Ele era uma criança quando (eu) visitei o Brasil.– He was a kid when I visited Brazil.
Você era uma criança quando (eu) visitei o Brasil.– You were a kid when I visited Brazil.
A gente era criança quando (eu) visitei o Brasil.– We were kids when I visited Brazil.
(Nós) éramos crianças quando (eu) visitei o Brasil.– We were kids when I visited Brazil.
Eles eram crianças quando (eu) visitei o Brasil.– They were kids when I visited Brazil.
Vocês eram crianças quando (eu) visitei o Brasil.– You were kids when I visited Brazil.