In this lesson, we’ll have a look at particípios passados irregularesirregular past participles in Portuguese, i.e. past participles which behave in a unique and unpredictable way, instead of following the typical rules. Let’s see an example:
Eu abri a janela. A janela foi aberta.I opened the window. The window was opened.
If you are fresh off the previous lesson, perhaps you expected the past participle of abrirto open to follow the rule for -IR verbs, and be “abrida”. Right? But being a mischievous irregular verb, instead of “abrido”/”abrida”, the verb abrir becomes “aberto”/”aberta”! Similarly, if we look at the past participle of fazerto do, to make we get:
O jantar está feito?Is dinner done?
Be honest: since fazer is an -ER verb, you were probably expecting it to become “fazido”, weren’t you?
Why does this happen, you might ask? The truth is, nobody really knows. The bad news: you’ll have to learn irregular participles by heart, since there’s not much of a pattern. The good news: there’s not that many of them! Below we’ll review the most essential verbs that have irregular past participles. Keep in mind that to form the feminine version, you just change the final “o” to an “a”.
Abrir
abertoopened
Cobrir
cobertocovered
Dizer
ditosaid, told
Descobrir
descobertodiscovered
Descrever
descritodescribed
Escrever
escritowritten
Fazer
feitodone, made
Ganhar*
ganhowon
Gastar*
gastospent
Inscrever
inscritoenrolled
Pagar*
pagopaid
Pôr
postoput
Ver
vistoseen
Vir
vindocome, came, arrived
Did you notice the verbs marked with an asterisk? Keep them in mind for the next learning note…
In the last sentence we are told how to form the feminine but does the “ter” rule still apply to the irregular forms I.e always the masculine?
Yes, it does! You’ll only see feminine past participles (regular or irregular) with the auxiliary verbs ser, estar or ficar, because then, those past participles function as adjectives (passive voice) and not as a proper verb form.
– A porta foi aberta. (The door was opened)
– A porta está aberta. (The door is open)
– A porta fica aberta. (The door stays open)
But:
– Eu tenho aberto a porta. (I have been opening the door)
– Tu tinhas aberto a porta. (You had opened the door)
I think ler / lido deserves to be on this list.
Lido would fall under the regular past participles category, as it follows the regular rules for -er verbs. You start with ler, remove the ending (-er), and then add -ido to get lido.
Right! Sorry silly me.