Learning Notes

Portuguese Verbs and Personal Pronouns

TagsGrammar Pronouns Verbs
UnitUnits
5 min read

Time for some action! đŸ•șđŸ»đŸ’ƒđŸ» We’ve covered a few basics already, but we won’t get very far without talking about verbosverbs . This Learning Note is a brief overview of how Portuguese verbs work, as well as the personal pronouns associated with each conjugation.
Just like in English, a Portuguese verb expresses an action. For example:
cantarto sing
serto be
beberto drink
Each verb can appear in many different forms. In fact, each verb has over 50 different conjugations! Luckily, there are rules you will learn to make each conjugation easier to remember, and not all 50 forms are used on a daily basis. Phew! 😅

Types of Verbs

In Portuguese, verbs are generally split into three groups based on the last two letters of the verb’s infinitive form:


Regular vs. Irregular: Each of the 3 groups above has its own rules for which verb endings to apply to the verb stem. A verb is considered regular if it follows the typical rules for its group. Unfortunately, we also have to learn those pesky irregular verbs, which don’t follow the rules and just have to be memorized. (Keep in mind that some verbs follow the regular rules in some tenses, but are irregular in other tenses.)
We’ll explore each type in more detail later. For now, here’s an example of how to conjugate the regular -ar verb falar:

Indicativo

Presente

NĂłs falamos ao telefoneWe talk on the phone

What Does a Verb’s Conjugation Tell You?

Depending on the situation, you can get all the following information just from the conjugated verb:

  • Who is doing the action (me, you, him, her, etc)
  • The number of people (e.g. I vs. we, you – singular vs. you – plural, etc.)
  • Whether your relationship to that person is formal or informal
  • When the action is happening (e.g. past, present, future tense)
  • The certainty (based on which tense/mood is used)
  • and, of course, the action itself

Personal Pronouns

Who (or what) is doing the action? Here are the words used for each of the Portuguese personal pronouns / subject pronouns:

3rd Person Verb Conjugations

*VocĂȘ and vocĂȘs are technically 2nd person (you), however, they are typically grouped in the 3rd person category for simplicity, because this is how they are conjugated.
The verb forms for the personal pronouns ele, ela, and vocĂȘ are always conjugated the same way. (E.g. “Ele Ă©â€Šâ€, “Ela Ă©â€Šâ€, “VocĂȘ Ă©â€Šâ€) Similarly, the verb forms for eles, elas, and vocĂȘs are also always conjugated the same way. (E.g. “Eles sĂŁo
”, “Elas sĂŁo
”, VocĂȘs sĂŁo
”)
When we’re talking about a group of females, we use the word elas, and for a group of males, eles. If the group is made up of both males and females, we also use eles. As sexist as it sounds, you could have a group of 1000 females, but just by adding one guy to the group, elas becomes eles!

What About “It”?

“It” corresponds to the 3rd person singular verb conjugation, but Portuguese doesn’t actually use neutral pronouns like it. In cases where you would expect it to be used, there is often no pronoun at all. For example: É sábadoIt's Saturday .
That said, sometimes ele or ela can be used to refer to inanimate objects, depending on whether they are masculine or feminine nouns. Or, in some contexts, you would use the word issothat or a clitic pronoun.

Omitting Personal Pronouns

Omitting the pronoun is not just for “it”, though. In Portuguese, it’s very common to omit the personal pronoun (eg. eu, tu, ele, etc.) preceding a verb. This is because in most contexts the verb conjugation already tells you who is doing the action.
For example: Eu gosto de mĂșsicaI like music = Gosto de mĂșsicaI like music

Present Tense

We’ll teach you verbs in the present tense (presente do indicativo) first. This will be the main tense we use throughout the A1 level. In Portuguese, present tense is pretty versatile because it can be used to talk about current or habitual actions / states of being. ‘Current’ means something that is happening right now, and ‘habitual’ means something that happens regularly. In many cases, it can even refer to the immediate future. For example, Eu pago could translate to I pay or I’ll pay, depending on the context.

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