Portuguese verbs display a high degree of inflection. A typical regular verb has over fifty different forms, expressing up to six different grammatical tenses and three moods. Two forms are peculiar to Portuguese within the Romance languages: The personal infinitive, a non-finite form which does not show tense, but is inflected for person and number. The future subjunctive, is sometimes archaic in some dialects (including peninsular) of related languages such as Spanish, but still active in Portuguese.
It has also several verbal periphrases.
Overview
Portuguese verbs have the following properties.
Two numbers—singular, plural
Three persons—first, second, third
Three aspects—perfective, imperfective, progressive*
Two voices—active, passive*
Six morphological forms for tenses, aspects, and/or moods—present, preterite, imperfect, pluperfect, future, and conditional. Three (or four) moods—indicative, subjunctive, imperative (and conditional, according to some authors)
Classes with an asterisk are entirely periphrastic. The passive voice can be constructed in two different ways. The pluperfect and the future of the indicative mood, as well as the conditional form, are often replaced with other verbal constructions or verbal periphrases in the spoken language.
Basic tenses and moods
Conjugation is demonstrated here with the important irregular verb fazer, "to do":
Periphrastic forms are as follows:
Notes
Description
The tenses correspond to: Present (presente): "I do" or "I am doing". Preterite (pretérito, or pretérito perfeito): "I did" or "I have done". Imperfect (imperfeito, or pretérito imperfeito): "I did", "I used to do", "I was doing". Pluperfect (mais-que-perfeito, or pretérito mais-que-perfeito): "I had done". Future (futuro, or futuro do presente in Brazilian Portuguese): "I will do", "I am going to do". Conditional (condicional, or futuro do pretérito in Brazilian Portuguese): "I would do". Used in some types of conditional sentences, as a form of courtesy, or as a future-in-the-past.
The five non-finite forms generally correspond to: (Impersonal) infinitive (infinitivo, or infinitivo impessoal): equivalent to English "to do". Past participle (particípio, or particípio passado): equivalent to English "done". Present participle (particípio presente): Uncommon in modern speech. Somewhat equivalent to English "doer", or used as an adjective relating to an ongoing action, or that action in general. For example, "falante" can mean "talking (+ noun)", "talkative" or "speaker". See notes above. Gerund (gerúndio): equivalent to English "(is) doing". Used to actually show/describe ongoing action. Personal infinitive (infinitivo pessoal): "(for me) to do", an infinitive which inflects according to its subject; a rare feature that Portuguese shares with Galician.
The moods are used roughly as follows: Indicative (indicativo): for factual statements or positive beliefs. Example of an English equivalent: "I have done". Subjunctive (subjuntivo, or conjuntivo): mostly used when speaking of unreal, uncertain, or unassumed conditions: "Were I to do". Imperative (imperativo): for direct commands or requests; equivalent to the English "Do!"
For the Portuguese personal pronouns (which are omitted whenever they can be inferred from the ending of the conjugated verb or the context), see Portuguese personal pronouns and possessives.
Conjugations
Regular verbs belong to one of three conjugation classes, distinguished by the ending of their infinitive forms (which is also their citation form): Those whose infinitive ends in -ar belong to the first conjugation (e.g. lavar, matar, ladrar); Those whose infinitive ends in -er belong to the second conjugation (e.g. correr, comer, colher); Those whose infinitive ends in -ir belong to the third conjugation (e.g. partir, destruir, urdir); The verb pôr is conventionally placed in the second conjugation by many authors, since it is derived from Old Portuguese poer (Latin ponere). In any event, this is an irregular verb whose conjugation must be learned on its own. Other verbs with infinitives ending in -or, such as depor, compor, and propor are derivatives of pôr, and are conjugated in the same way.
First conjugation (cantar)
Second conjugation (comer)
Third conjugation (partir)
Quick reference
Important irregular verbs
The following irregular verbs are used as auxiliary verbs in various periphrastic constructions.