In Portuguese, verbs are split into three groups:
In this article, we’ll cover the first group: -AR Verbs!
Common regular verbs ending in -AR include falarto speak , pensarto think and amarto love
When the conjugation is regular, the endings of conjugated -AR verbs follow the same pattern. Below, we’ll use the Portuguese regular verb falarto speak in the present tense as an example:
Indicativo
Eu falo com ela todos os diasI speak with her everyday.
- eu faloi talkindicativo > presente tu falasYou sing.,inf. speakindicativo > presente ele / ela falaHe / She speaksindicativo > presente você falayou speakindicativo > presente nós falamoswe speakindicativo > presente eles / elas falamthey speakindicativo > presente vocês falamyou talkindicativo > presente
Once you memorize the endings for one regular -AR verb conjugation (-o, -as, -a, -amos, -am), you can follow the same pattern to conjugate all the other -AR verbs in that tense… (unless they’re irregular 🙈).
More Examples of Regular -AR Verb Conjugations
Indicativo
Vocês gostam de falarYoupl. like to talk
- eu gostoi likeindicativo > presente tu gostasYou sing.,inf. likeindicativo > presente ele / ela gostaHe / She likesindicativo > presente você gostayou likeindicativo > presente nós gostamoswe likeindicativo > presente eles / elas gostamthey likeindicativo > presente vocês gostamyou likeindicativo > presente
Indicativo
Tu viajas muito?Do yousing.,inf. travel much?
- eu viajoi travelindicativo > presente tu viajasYou sing.,inf. travelindicativo > presente ele / ela viajaHe / She travelsindicativo > presente você viajayou travelindicativo > presente nós viajamoswe travelindicativo > presente eles / elas viajamthey travelindicativo > presente vocês viajamyou travelindicativo > presente
Indicativo
Tu trabalhas muito.You (inf.) work a lot.
- eu trabalhoi workindicativo > presente tu trabalhasYou sing.,inf. workindicativo > presente ele / ela trabalhaHe / She worksindicativo > presente você trabalhayou workindicativo > presente nós trabalhamoswe workindicativo > presente eles / elas trabalhamthey workindicativo > presente vocês trabalhamyou workindicativo > presente
Indicativo
Tu estudas demaisYou study too much!
- eu estudoi studyindicativo > presente tu estudasYou sing.,inf. studyindicativo > presente ele / ela estudaHe / She studiesindicativo > presente você estudayou studyindicativo > presente nós estudamoswe studyindicativo > presente eles / elas estudamthey studyindicativo > presente vocês estudamyou studyindicativo > presente
Here are a few more of the verbs you’ll work with in the following lessons. These will all be conjugated with the same endings:
- ficarto stay, to become, to be(located) andarto walk precisarto need
- falarto talk, to speak conversarto talk, chat, converse
- comprarto buy procurarto search, look for
Verb Stems
Notice that the verb stem (the beginning of the verb to which you add the respective ending) ends right before the last vowel of the verb in its infinitive form. So, the stem of viajar is viaj-, the stem of estudar is estud-, and the stem of anunciar would be anunci-.
Regardless of which tense you are using, if you’re conjugating a regular Portuguese verb, you will always take the same verb stem and add on the appropriate ending.
Tip
- In the simple present, the 1st person singular of every single regular verb in Portuguese always ends with just an o, so that’s the easiest one to memorize. You’ll confirm this as you read about the -ER and -IR verb groups as well.
great so far
excelent explenations
Muito bom. Obrigada.Gosto de escutar os sons
Liked the pronunciation with it. Indispensable, I think.
I’d like to second one of the comments above – the pronunciation. It’s truly indispensable.
In the following lesson there is a rather annoying mix up of talk and speak in the translations, sometimes marked as wrong.
Thanks for your comment. It’s tricky, because the verb “falar” can mean both “to talk” and “to speak”, so the two possibilities are covered. Feel free to reach out via the contact page (http://www.practiceportuguese.com/contact/) if any specific question was confusing to you and you’d like extra clarification. In alternative, when going through the lessons, you can also click on the option “Send feedback about this question” that appears on the bottom right after you check your answer.
I’m loving the clarity and pace of this site. i love the fun you bring into the sessions too…muito obrigado 🙂
So the conjugation for the verb amar in its “voces,eles,elas”form is amm, right?
Actually, the stem of the verb ‘amar’ would be ‘am-‘, to which you add the suffix ‘-am’. So, you end up with “amam” – this is the right conjugation in the third-person plural 🙂
Muito Obirigada.
Brilliantly explained. Loving it so far
Thank you!
Aft the long. break I had due to the move to Portugal followed by super “fast” internet provision and connection taking about 8 weeks to complete, I am now back on! Hurrah. Some catching up to do though.
Oh how I’ve missed verb conjugation! For this to make sense, I have to translate to french and then to portugese!
I noticed in many of the pronounncation clips that native speakers will blend or almost drop certain voul sounds.
For example: She is the woman Ela e a mulher. I only hear a single long a sound for (ea) Like wise if an e proceeds the letter s in the beginning of a word it almost sounds as the short e sound is dropped. For Example Estudar. I wonder if this is just habit or if it is according to pronunciation rules. Might there be in the future some advanced pronunciation lessons?
Hi Michelle, You’re absolutely right. You will notice lots of “disappearing” sounds like this. We actually made a video about it that you can watch here: Mystery of the Disappearing Sounds. Sounds blending together happens to some extent in all languages when speaking quickly, but the dropping of vowels is especially common in European Portuguese!
I find the different ways …….am are pronounced difficult to understand – can’t see a ruke/logic
Hi Chris, Can you tell me more about what you mean? I’m not sure which pronunciations you’re having trouble with. Let me know and I’ll see if I can help!
Great way to learn português, especially now: #fiqueemcasa,
obrigada 🙂
Beijos e abraços
The “…..am” with falam, gostam, viajam and estudam basically become one of two sounds – why and what tells you to pronoiunce tghem differently?
Thanks
Hi, Chris. The ending -am sound is actually quite consistent across different words. Maybe you’re just noticing minor variations of rhythm or inflection?
Easy to follow
The order of the plurals is different from the singulars:
1st person singular, 2nd person singular, 3rd person singular. But then you have 1st person plural followed by 3rd person plural and then 2nd person plural. Is this a Portuguese tradition? I find it confusing.
Good question – the variety of 2nd person forms is what complicates things here. It’s divided up this way because 2nd person singular FORMAL (você) is conjugated exactly the same as 3rd person singular, and 2nd person plural (vocês) is conjugated exactly the same as 3rd person plural. Since the last 2 categories from each section are conjugated the same way, they are grouped together. So even though tu and você are technically both 2nd person, it makes more sense to think of você as part of the 3rd person singular category when it comes to adding verb endings. Same with vocês, it makes more sense to think of it as part of the 3rd person plural category.
Singular:
1st person singular (eu)
2nd person singular informal (tu)
3rd person singular (ele, ela) AND 2nd person singular formal (você and forms of você)
Plural:
1st person plural (nós)
—There is another 2nd person plural formal form that would go here (vós), but we don’t cover this because it’s a mostly archaic form
3rd person plural (eles, elas) AND 2nd person plural (vocês)
Let me know if that helps clarify things!
If the current order of the 3rd person plural and the “2nd person plural” (vocês) was inverted the two would be still grouped together and people like Will and me wouldn’t be confused. I don’t see any downside to this approach. Maybe I’m missing something though?
Not a bad idea, Lukas. Thanks for the suggestion 🙂
I still can’t understand how you pronounce the…am of the plural. Could you explain me somehow. I have listened many times the audio of the word but still… It’s a bit confusing .
Olá, Amalia. Maybe instead of thinking about -am, you can think of -ão, because both have the same sound. You have to think of these as ending nasally, but without closing your lips/mouth completely. The only similar sound I know in English would be the ‘-ng’ sound in words such as sung or rung, except that the Portuguese nasal sounds aren’t as closed.
I love the way I´m able to practice pronouncing the words. As a Spanish speaker I´m used to all the vowel sounds being open. Great so far.
So far so good:-)
Good so far
I found it very interesting. That in the word Estudar the E is silent.
You might like this video too 🙂 Mystery of the Disappearing Sounds
This brings me back to my French classes many years ago. Une excellente discussion!
As we lived in Luxembourg I am used to speaking French and also spent a year in Paris.
I do have very old basics of latin and as all Romanesque languages do have similar roots I am enjoying my attempts to learn Portuguese. Unfortunately I am quite old now and things move a lot slower.
Thank youQ
Hi there, loving the content and the set up. Could you help me ? I understand that the present verb sou (permanent) and estar (temporary) but how would you say if you were insulting someone or having banter, “you are stupid” “we are donkeys” ?
Many thanks, robbie
Olá, Robbie. We usually insult with the verb ser. “Tu és estúpido!”, “Nós somos burros” 🙂
LOL — This is excellent info to know! So if someone is an idiot, I need to remember/think they are always permanently an idiot & use SER. Obrigada! 🙂
i don’t understand in which context i should use “achar” or “pensar”. Could you explain?
Olá, Anne! Those two are a bit tricky, indeed. Here’s a forum topic where this has just been discussed: Achar vs Pensar – Practice Portuguese Forum
In the audio clip “gostamos” has a very different verb stem pronounciation to “gostam”, so “gou-stamos” and “go-stam”. Is it correct that they are different – possible dialect development?
Olá, Scott. That’s correct! The O is pronounced differently and the stressed syllable shifts (GO-stam vs. gos-TA-mos). I couldn’t find any good explanation for that difference in pronunciation; it could be precisely to differentiate the stressed syllables, or it’s simply how the language has evolved over time. Vowel pronunciations change all the time across verb conjugations, actually.
Hi
As mentioned up…all regular verbs end in AR they have same pattern which….o,as,a,amos,em;
How about verb (passear) it’s regular and noticed theres
(i ) it doesn’t go like the others….?!
Thanks
Olá, Sam! The verb passear is not following the norm because it’s actually not a regular verb, or at least not in all tenses. It has several irregular forms in the present tense, as you’ve noted 🙂
so far everything is fine
Great course!
Is there a way to get rid of the play/speaker icon for each word without having to refresh the page?
Hi,
Can you please let me know how to pronounce the ‘ar’ or ‘ir’ sound at the end of a word such as ir or falar. When I listen to the recordings it sounds like the ending is pronounced with a ‘t’ or ‘d’ sound. Shouldn’t the ending sound like you are rolling the ‘r’?
Sincerely,
Brian
I’ve noticed in some words, particularly Poder and Gostar in this section, that the pronunciation of the “o” changes with the 1st person plural conjugation.
For example, the 1st syllable “o” in Gosto, Gostas, Gosta all sound different from the 1st syllable “o” in Gostamos.
Is this the commonly accepted pronunciation of these conjugations, or just a choice by the person making the recordings. If it’s the accepted pronunciation, is there any sort of rule? I understand how certain vowels will sound different in different words, but I am confused because I would think the vowel sounds in the same root verb would all sound the same.
Love your site. Thank you for all of the knowledge!!
Olá! Those are the correct pronunciations in each case. The sound of the O depends on whether it falls on a stressed or unstressed syllable. The stressed syllable is generally the second-to-last one. So, GOs-to, PO-des… have stressed Os, but then gos-TA-mos, po-DE-mos… do not. These changes in pronunciation are probably meant precisely to make it clear where the stress lies.
Beautiful and clear explanation. Thank you!!
I am having trouble both in school, in conversation and on this site hearing the difference between O and Um and A and Uma especially, but not only when they are spoken in the middle of a sentence.
When doing the quizzes section I often have to use the slow speak symbol, and even then it is not always easy to distinguish the difference.
Even before we had to wear masks, it wasn’t really helpful trying to watch the mouth because the m isn’t pronounced like in English.
Love the site though and now I am using it properly instead of just a fall back things are making more sense.
Thank you.
kellie.
You’re not alone! It takes a long time to hear the difference and they are easy to mix up. The only difference between o and um is that um has a more nasal sound to it.
In a real conversation, you will usually have context to help you know which would make more sense, but in an isolated sentence (like in the lessons) it can be harder when you have to rely fully on your perception.
If you open these two Learning Notes: Definite Articles in Portuguese and Indefinite Articles in Portuguese, you can play “o carro” and “um carro” back to back, which might help you hear it. But try not to be too discouraged if it’s still difficult, it will take time. Just keep playing and listening to the examples when they come up and gradually it will get a little easier.
The am ending sounds like ão to me is this correct. I also hear people drop the final o if they say eu before the verb, is this normal?
Yes, the ending -am and -ão are the same sound 🙂 The difference is that ‘-am’ is an unstressed syllable and ‘-ão’ is stressed. That’s why a word such as ‘chegaram’ (3rd-person plural form of ‘chegar’ in the simple past) sounds different from a word such as ‘chegarão’ (3rd-person plural form of ‘chegar’ in the future tense).
About dropping the final O, do you mean like in “Eu falo” (saying only “Eu fal-“)? Ending vowels are often not clearly pronounced in European Portuguese when they are unstressed, whether or not we have other words before. It’s just a typical feature of real-world pronunciation, which takes some getting used to when you’re learning the language, I have to say 🙂
It seems to me that “o” in “gostar” infinitive is pronounced more like in “gostamos” rather than like in “gosto”/”gosta”, etc. Is that some kind of exception from stressing the second-to-last syllable?
Yes! “Gostar” and “gostamos” have the same closed O sound, while “gosto” (1st person singular conjugation) has an open O. Verbs in the infinitive are all stressed on the last syllable (if they have more than one syllable), because that’s the standard for any unaccented word ending in R.
Just a note that a vowel doesn’t have to be open just because it lies on a stressed syllable, or closed because it doesn’t. “Gosto” (verb conjugation) has an open O, but “gosto” (noun, meaning “taste”) has a medium O – both are stressed on the same position.
What sound do you make with the second a of viaja?
Olá! The second A of ‘viaja’ should sound like a medium A, as in ‘amigo’ in this reference guide: Pronunciation Guide for European Portuguese Vowels
Working through the four example verbs with quizzes at the end was very helpful. At times, though, it is hard to hear some subtle differences, like trabalha vs. trabalham. So I missed some of those. Might be easier if the pronoun is included.
I would like to ask 2 questions:
-when hear people speaking quickly, one can almost not distinguish between um and o. For example, in your recordings I cannot understand if I hear “um homem” or “o homem” (they both sound as ‘u omei’). What is your advice?
-the accent in “vocês” (when pronounced) is on the last vowel, isn’t it? It seems to me that I hear it as ‘vOcês” in recordings and would like to know which one is right.
Thanks in advance!
-I totally understand that it may seem hard to distinguish between um and o when someone is speaking quickly. And it will always depend on the person’s voice projection, diction, volume,… It’s just something that you’ll get used to and catch the hang of it over time. For now, what I can tell you is that “um” is a much more nasal sound than “o”. Just try to listen carefully enough to spot the nasal or non-nasal sound of the article.
-The accent in “vocês” is, in fact, on the last vowel! The O, however, is an open O sound and that may be your issue with this word. Even though it’s an open O the stronger silabe should be -cês! Try to do this trick: scream the word as it is supposed to be pronounced. The stronger silabe should be the one you scream the loudest. “voCÊS!”. If you say it “VOces” (voices in spanish) you’re saying it wrong.
🙂
When I play the audio clip of viaja, I hear a nasal an sound, which the second a appears to be. Since the vowel appears in an unstressed syllable it should be a medium a sound.
It’s not supposed to be a nasal sound! As you said, it should be a medium a sound. I hear it fine, but I believe that for some reason – wether it’s audio quality, untrained ears or focusing too much on the sound you don’t want to hear – you may be listening to something slightly different. Just focus on the word as a whole and try to find that medium a sound. You’ll get there easily! If not, just don’t let yourself get stuck on this.
I was wondering if somebody could help me with the rule of when to use ‘de’ or not between a verb and a noun. For example would correctly say ‘tu gostas DE cafe?’ and ‘precisar DE sal?’ but ‘tu não compras sapatos’.
Why do the first two examples have a ‘de’ before the noun but the last doesn’t? I’m sure there’s a logical answer I just can’t work it out 😁
Olá! Some verbs typically require prepositions to be connected to other elements of a sentence, while others do not. Verbs such as ‘gostar’, ‘precisar’ and ‘lembrar’ are examples of the former, while verbs such as ‘querer’ or ‘comprar’ are the opposite.
– Precisas de ajuda? (Do you need help?)
– Eu lembro-me de tudo. (I remember everything)
– Gosto de vinho. (I like wine)
– Quero vinho. (I want wine)
– Tu compraste tudo. (You bought everything)
This is such a great course!
At last! A program that doesn’t jump to the past imperfect subjunctives in lesson 2.
This is such an amazing course I am extremely happy that I found it!!
This is great! I’d like to see Smart Review / audio blocks for gostar, viajar, trabalhar, and estudar, though, like you have for ficar, andar, etc. Gotta learn those infinitives, and Smart Review is a great way to do it.
Good idea, I’ll pass along the suggestion! In the meantime, you can add a lot of common infinitive verbs to Smart Review like this:
– Go to the Manage Smart Review page
– Click Add Phrase
– Search By Units
– Select Common Verbs 1
– Add any you want to add from there
And another way is to search the Translator for specific verbs. If we have the verb it will show up down below the results with the option to add to Smart Review. The translator can also be opened without leaving the page by using the icon in the upper right corner.
Please correct me if I’m wrong. If a word ends with -am it’s pronounced as ‘-aam’ in English, whereas -em at the end of a word would be pronounced as ‘-eng’
For -am/-ão (different spellings of the same sound), you can maybe think of the sound of the word ‘dumb’ (without the B), but without closing your mouth to articulate the M, since in Portuguese, this ending M is not articulated, just expressed as nasal resonance. For -em/-ãe, the English ‘-eng’ sound is a reasonable reference for the nasality, but unlike the English ‘-eng’, the tongue should not touch the soft palate and close off the mouth. Think of it more as just the start of the ‘-eng’ sound. We don’t really have perfect English counterparts to these sounds, so it’s difficult to figure them out!
Thank you Joseph
Great explanation!
When listening carefully to the pronunciation of the “am” in (for example) viajam I am not hearing the m at all and it sounds more like “ow” to me. But subtle. Am I hearing that right? I have been pronouncing that m and I think I need to correct that
Yes, good ears! You’re correct that the m at the end of Portuguese words is not pronounced like an English m. Instead, it just indicates a nasal vowel. So it sounds sort of like “ow”, but more nasalized.
For more info and to hear examples, check the “m” section in the chart from this Learning Note: European Portuguese consonants and the nasality section here: European Portuguese vowels
At the end of the lesson, there’s a tip that reads “The 1st person singular of every single regular verb in Portuguese always ends with just an o, so that’s the easiest one to memorize. You’ll confirm this as you read about the -ER and -IR verb groups as well.”
It may be helpful to clarify that this tip is true in the 1st person, singular, *present tense* of verbs. The “every single regular verb in Portuguese” is a bit confusing, since this isn’t true as soon as you’re working outside of present tense. Perhaps this is self explanatory since the tip is found within the lesson on present tense -AR verbs, but as I mentioned, the use of “every single regular verb” makes it a bit confusing.
Other than this, I’m loving the content! Super helpful 🙂
Thanks! We’ve already updated the tip for full clarity 🙂
Thank you!
As someone who has studied Spanish, this stuff is easy to understand. I’m curious though, are there common mistakes people make while learning Portuguese due to their experience/background with Spanish? (i.e. false cognates, etcetera)
Good question! Absolutely, there’s a number of common mistakes, most of them related to false cognates, but also to words that mean the same, but are spelled just slightly differently (e.g. PT livro vs. ES libro). Some sentence structure aspects also come to mind, such as starting questions with “É que…?” in Portuguese to mimic the Spanish “¿Es que…?” (this is not a thing in Portuguese). Here’s a nice overview of the similarities and differences between Portuguese and Spanish: Spanish vs. Portuguese
Gosto de falar Portuguese contigo!