The Pretérito Perfeito is the past tense used to talk about completed actions in the past. It is used for actions that started and ended at a specific moment in time.

In Portuguese, regular verbs in the Pretérito Perfeito follow clear and predictable patterns. These patterns depend on the verb group: –ar, –er, or –ir.

This article focuses exclusively on regular conjugation rules.

When to use the Pretérito Perfeito

You use the Pretérito Perfeito to describe actions that are finished. Examples of typical contexts:

• something that happened once
• something that happened several times but is now finished
• something that took place at a specific moment in the past

The key idea is completion.

The three regular verb groups

Portuguese regular verbs are divided into three groups based on their infinitive ending:

• verbs ending in -ar
• verbs ending in -er
• verbs ending in -ir

Each group has its own set of endings in the Pretérito Perfeito.

-ar group

For regular -ar verbs, remove the -ar ending and add the following endings:

eu	-ei
tu	-aste
você, ele, ela	-ou
nós	-ámos
vocês, eles, elas	-aram

Example: falar (to speak)

eu	falei
tu	falaste
você, ele, ela	falou
nós	falamos
vocês, eles, elas	falaram

-er group

For regular -er verbs, remove the -er ending and add the following endings:

eu	-i
tu	-este
você, ele, ela	-eu
nós	-emos
vocês, eles, elas	-eram

Example: comer (to eat)

eu	comi
tu	comeste
você, ele, ela	comeu
nós	comemos
vocês, eles, elas	comeram

-ir group

For regular -ir verbs, remove the -ir ending and add the following endings:

eu	-i
tu	-iste
você, ele, ela	-iu
nós	-imos
vocês, eles, elas	-iram

Exemple: partir (to leave)

eu	parti
tu	partiste
você, ele, ela	partiu
nós	partimos
vocês, eles, elas	partiram

Key points to remember

• The Pretérito Perfeito is used for completed past actions.
• Regular verbs follow fixed conjugation patterns.
• The verb ending (-ar, -er, -ir) determines the set of endings.
• Once you know the endings, you can conjugate most regular verbs correctly.