Portuguese Regular Verbs in the Present Tense

Portuguese verbs are indeed more cumbersome to learn than, say, English. Being a Romance language, Portuguese is not short of verb forms to keep track of.

Fortunately, there are plenty of regular verbs as well, that is, verbs following a regular pattern concerning their conjugation. This means that you can learn and apply a conjugation “formula” that works with any regular verb. Neat.

In Portuguese, regular verbs are distributed into 3 conjugation groups:

	1st conjugation: -AR (Acordar)	2nd conjugation: -ER (Mexer)	3rd conjugation: -IR (Partir)
Eu	acordo	mexo	parto
Tu	acordas	mexes	partes
Ele, ela, você	acorda	mexe	parte
Nós	acordamos	mexemos	partimos
Vocês	acordam	mexem	partem
Eles, elas	acordam	mexem	partem

In what follows, I will walk you through the conjugation patterns in greater detail. Namely, we look into some minor spelling adjustments that sometimes occur in the first person of the present tense. Read on.

Here’s an analogous article for the past tense: Portuguese Regular Verbs in the Past Tense.  

Regular conjugation

To conjugate any regular verb in the present tense, remove the ending of the infinitive – either –ar, –er, or –ir –  and add, instead, the following endings to the stem (marked in bold):

	1st conjugation: -AR (Pensar)	2nd conjugation: -ER (Vender)	3rd conjugation: -IR (Abrir)
Eu	penso	vendo	abro
Tu	pensas	vendes	abres
Ele, ela, você	pensa	vende	abre
Nós	pensamos	vendemos	abrimos
Vocês (vós)*	pensam (pensais)	vendem (vendeis)	abrem (abris)
Eles, elas	pensam	vendem	abrem
Other commonly used regular verbs	ficar, andar, falar, chegar, costumar, gostar, morar	comer, beber, querer, dever, correr, viver	partir, existir, sentir, dormir

* In modern Portuguese, the 2- and 3-person plural share the same verb form. You may occasionally hear an outdated version (enclosed in parentheses in the table above) in conjunction with the pronoun vós. As its usage becomes ever rarer, I don’t think you should bother to learn it.   

Minor spelling adjustments

There are a few verbs in the -ir group whose conjugation follows the above pattern except for the first person – these are verbs containing either an e or an o in their stem.

So, the e and o become i and u (respectively) in the first person. Here are a few examples:

	e to i
despir	eu dispo, tu despes, ele despe, etc.
mentir	eu minto, tu mentes, ele mente, etc.
preferir	eu prefiro, tu preferes, ele, prefere, etc
	o to u
cobrir	eu cubro, tu cobres, ele, cobre, etc.
dormir	eu durmo, tu dormes, ele dorme, etc.
tossir	eu tusso, tu tosses, ele tosse, etc.

Also, if the stem of an -er or -ir verb ends in -c, -g, or –gu, these consonants change to -ç, -j, and g respectively in the first person of the present tense (to preserve the original consonant sound*): 

	c to ç
conhecer	eu conheço, tu conheces, ele conhece, etc.
parecer	eu pareço, tu pareces, ele parece, etc.
	g to j
fugir	eu fujo, tu foges, ele foge, etc.
agir	eu ajo, tu ages, ele age, etc.
	gu to g
conseguir	eu consigo, tu consegues, ele consegue, etc.
seguir	eu sigo, tu segues, ele segue, etc.

* Learn more about Portuguese phonology and spelling-sound patterns: European Portuguese Pronunciation – Complete Guide to Portuguese Phonology and Spelling-Sound Patterns.

10 non-regular verbs you want to learn

There are indeed many regular verbs in the present tense (the 1st-conjugation group is by far the largest). However, some of the most widely used Portuguese verbs happen to be irregular. 

Here’re 10 Portuguese irregular verbs you should know by heart:

ser (be)	sou, és, é, somos, são
estar (be)	estou, estás, está, estamos, estão
ter (have)	tenho, tens, tem, temos, têm
haver (there is)	há
dar (give)	dou, dás, dá, damos, dão
pôr (put)	ponho, pões, põe, pomos, põem
ir (go)	vou, vais, vai, vamos, vão
fazer (do, make)	faço, fazes, faz, fazemos, fazem
poder (can)	posso, podes, pode, podemos, podem
saber (know)	sei, sabes, sabe, sabemos, sabem

Reading tips! Speaking of widely used verbs. Here are a few reads that will turn you into a better user of Portuguese:

• Portuguese Must-Know Irregular Verbs
• Making the Most of the Portuguese Verb “Ficar”: Usage Rundown and Conjugation
• The Portuguese Verb “Haver” and All the Things You Say with It
• The Portuguese Verb “Dar”: Usage and Idiomatic Expressions
• Portuguese Verbs Ser vs. Estar: How and When to Use Either