Affirmative Imperative (o imperativo afirmativo)

Negative Imperative (o imperativo negativo)

Present Subjunctive (o presente do subjuntivo)

Imperfect Subjunctive (o pretérito imperfeito do subjuntivo)

Future Subjunctive (o futuro do subjuntivo)

Gerund and Participle (o gerúndio e o particípio)

The personal infinitive in Portuguese is a special form of the infinitive verb that is inflected to agree with different subjects. This form is unique to Portuguese (and Galician) and allows the verb to carry information about who is performing the action, even when using an infinitive.

You use the personal infintive to emphasize who the verb is directed to:

É melhor irmos para a cama na hora certa. It's better for us to go to bed on time.

É importante chegarmos cedo. It's important for us to arrive early.

É bom partirmos agora. It's good that we leave now.

Obrigado a todos por terem vindo tão rápido. Thank you everyone for coming so quickly.

You use the personal infinitive when there is a change of subject in the sentence:

Eu --> eles - Eu falarei com eles antes de partirem. I'll talk to them before they leave.

Eles --> nós - Eles vão cozinhar antes de chegarmos. They will cook before we come.

The conjugations of the personal infinitive are the same as those of the future subjunctive.

The pretérito mais-que-perfeito is mainly used in books, to describe actions that were completed before other past events. Unlike the pretérito perfeito composto, which is used to express past actions relevant to the present, the mais-que-perfeito appears in narratives to enhance the storytelling by clarifying the sequence of past events. Since it is not commonly used in spoken language, it is not really necessary to study this tense. That is why I've chosen to not include it in these verb pages. When you start reading books, you will very soon learn to recognize the mais-que-perfeito and you shouldn't have any trouble understanding this tense.

Pretérito mais-que-perfeito: Antes de eu chegar, ela recebera a carta. Before I arrived, she had received the letter.

Pretérito Perfeito Composto: Ela tem recebido muitas cartas este mês. She has received many letters this month.

Portuguese verbs are categorized into three groups based on their endings: -ar, -er, or -ir. These endings help determine how a verb is conjugated in different tenses and moods.

On this page, you'll find the conjugations for three regular verbs, each representing one of the main conjugation patterns:

• Falar (to speak) for -ar verbs
• Comer (to eat) for -er verbs
• Partir (to leave) for -ir verbs

All regular verbs on the Conjugations page adhere to one of these three patterns. For instance, the regular verb gostar (to like) follows the same pattern as falar. To conjugate gostar in the same tense, you only need to change the stem (the part of the verb before -ar, -er, -ir) from fal- to gost-. The endings, which indicate tense and subject (e.g., I, you, he/she/it), remain consistent within each verb group and are marked in purple.

Note on Usage:

• The stem of the verb, which carries the meaning, is marked in black.
• The verb endings, which change based on the subject and tense, are marked in purple.

By understanding these patterns, you can apply them to a wide range of regular verbs, greatly expanding your ability to communicate in Portuguese.

Tu and Vós

In European Portuguese, tu is used for informal singular conversations, while vós is traditionally the informal plural form but is rarely used in contemporary speech. Instead, vocês is commonly used for informal plural situations. The use of você does occur in Portugal, typically in more formal or polite contexts, though it is less common than in Brazil.

In Brazilian Portuguese, tu is used in some regions but often replaced by você, which is widely used across the country for both formal and informal singular conversations. The plural vós is essentially not used at all in modern Brazilian Portuguese. It's considered archaic and is only found in very old texts or in some religious scriptures. In everyday speech and writing, Brazilians use vocês for the plural form.

The Gerund

Please note that while the gerund is still used in Brazil, in Portugal it is commonly replaced by a + infinitive. For example, I am eating would be translated in Brazil as estou comendo and in Portugal as estou a comer.