You’ve learned about irregular verbs and how to conjugate some of them in the present tense. If they’re irregular in the present, they’re usually irregular in other tenses too. There are no consistent rules to follow for this category, so the only way to learn the different conjugations is to study each one and practice, practice, practice!
(Keep in mind, however, that there are some irregular verbs that follow the rules in most tenses, but are still called irregular due to the exceptions.)
We’ll cover a few of the most common irregular verbs in this Unit (Simple Past 2) and continue with even more in the following Unit (Simple Past 3).
Common Irregular Verbs in the Simple Past
In Portuguese the “simple past” is known as the pretérito perfeito do indicativo.
These are the only 2 irregular verbs in this tense that end in -ar:
Indicativo
Tu deste um presente à tua mãe ontemYou gave a present to your mom yesterday.
- eu deiI gaveindicativo > pret. perfeito tu desteyou sing.,inf. gaveindicativo > pret. perfeito ele / ela deuhe / she gaveindicativo > pret. perfeito você deuyou gaveindicativo > pret. perfeito nós demoswe gaveindicativo > pret. perfeito eles / elas deramthey gaveindicativo > pret. perfeito vocês deramyou gaveindicativo > pret. perfeito
Indicativo
Nós não estivemos juntosWe weren't together
- eu estiveI wasindicativo > pret. perfeito tu estivesteyou sing.,inf. wereindicativo > pret. perfeito ele / ela estevehe / she wasindicativo > pret. perfeito você esteveyou wereindicativo > pret. perfeito nós estivemoswe wereindicativo > pret. perfeito eles / elas estiveramthey wereindicativo > pret. perfeito vocês estiveramyou wereindicativo > pret. perfeito
And here is one common irregular verb that ends in -er:
Indicativo
Ela quis assimShe wanted it like that
- eu quisI wantedindicativo > pret. perfeito tu quisesteyou sing.,inf. wantedindicativo > pret. perfeito ele / ela quishe / she wantedindicativo > pret. perfeito você quisyou wantedindicativo > pret. perfeito nós quisemoswe wantedindicativo > pret. perfeito eles / elas quiseramthey wantedindicativo > pret. perfeito vocês quiseramyou wantedindicativo > pret. perfeito
You may have noticed that some of the verb endings are the same for irregular and regular verbs, despite the change in the verb stem. For example, the -eram ending for 3rd person plural is seen in both regular and irregular verbs.
Ser and Ir
These two deserve their own section. Notice anything interesting about the simple past tense conjugations for ser and ir?
Indicativo
Ela foi condenada a 5 anos de prisãoShe was sentenced to 5 years in prison
- eu fuiI wasindicativo > pret. perfeito tu fosteyou sing.,inf. wereindicativo > pret. perfeito ele / ela foihe / she wasindicativo > pret. perfeito você foiyou wereindicativo > pret. perfeito nós fomoswe wereindicativo > pret. perfeito eles / elas foramthey wereindicativo > pret. perfeito vocês foramyou wereindicativo > pret. perfeito
Indicativo
Ela foi à praia ontem.She went to the beach yesterday.
- eu fuiI wentindicativo > pret. perfeito tu fosteyou sing.,inf. wentindicativo > pret. perfeito ele / ela foihe / she wentindicativo > pret. perfeito você foiyou wentindicativo > pret. perfeito nós fomoswe wentindicativo > pret. perfeito eles / elas foramthey wentindicativo > pret. perfeito vocês foramyou wentindicativo > pret. perfeito
That’s right, they are exactly the same! Interesting, but potentially confusing… One means a person was something (ser) while the other means someone went somewhere (ir). Luckily context will usually make this clear, and you can also remember that ir will be followed by a preposition.
Eu fui pai.I was a father. Eu fui com o meu pai.I went with my father.
Let’s Practice!
With all these irregular forms to memorize, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, especially since many of the most frequently used verbs are irregular! When you get stuck, don’t forget that you can use our Verbs page to search for and quiz yourself on the conjugations of hundreds of verbs. Pace yourself, focusing on only the most common verbs for now. Let’s start practicing now in the following lessons!
Comments
I really struggle with these so being able to make links between some of them really helps – thank you!
I struggle with vir and ver. In the verb section I would really like to be able to practise the present and past without the imperfect and future. Is there anywhere I can do that?
Thanks
Yes, vir and ver drive me crazy too! Take a look at this unit: Simple Past 2 — the very last lesson lets you practice differentiating between vir and ver in the simple past. I made a note that we should add something like this for the present tense.
You’ve probably done this already, but if you search for each verb in the verb section, you can find exercises to practice each tense individually: Verbs, but currently there’s no way to group it with only present and past together. I’ll add this as a suggestion for the future, though!
It is interesting but really driving me crazy.
Love the word root connections to help me learn and remember new words😊
Hello
One of the examples in the verb practice for this section is – Nós tivemos que falar com o João – Why is it que and not de?
Olá 🙂 ‘Ter de’ and ‘ter que’ can be used interchangeably, without any difference between them, even though ‘ter de’ is presumably more appropriate from a conservative grammar perspective. For a more detailed explanation, here’s a helpful post on our forum: Ter de vs. ter que | Practice Portuguese Forum
Joseph thank you for pointing me in the right direction… I will go look at the forum discussion.
Whoever came up with the conjugations of vir and ver clearly wanted to make it as difficult as humanly possible for learners. My head hurts!
To follow up on Molly’s comment from 2020: While it is not possible to combine drills for multiple verbs in selected tenses using PP’s otherwise excellent verb section, it is possible on linguno (apologies for the the recommendation of another site, but I find the only way to get my head around these two tricky verbs is to do tons of combined drills with them).
I *really* don’t get the grammar in this sentence from the section on the verb ir: Eles foram-nos buscar a eles, translated to “they picked them up”. Why is it foram-nos? Why does “a eles” (which presumably means “to them”) not feature in the English translation?
The sentence “Eles foram-nos buscar a eles” can indeed be confusing. In this sentence, “foram-nos” is a contraction of “foram” (they went) and “nos” (to us OR to them), indicating that “they went to pick us/them up”. The phrase “a eles” is a tonic pronoun used for emphasis, and it refers to them, to avoid confusion. In English, this emphasis is often not translated directly, which is why “a eles” does not appear in the English translation. The sentence emphasizes that they went to pick up “them” specifically, but in English, we would simply say “they picked them up”.
To better understand this, please check out this Learning Note on Clitic Pronouns Nos and Vos: https://www.practiceportuguese.com/learning-notes/clitic-pronouns-nos-and-vos/
I understand when fui is followed with a preposition, it means went, such as in the example ‘eu fui com o meu pai — I went with my father’. But how do you say ‘ I want with my father’? Is it not ‘eu fui com o meu pai’?
Olá! Having a preposition after ‘fui’ doesn’t always determine that it means ‘went’, although it will frequently match. For example, “Eu fui da tua equipa” means “I was in your team/I was part of your team”, despite having the preposition.
About your question, did you mean “I was with my father”, rather than “I want with my father”? If so, “I was with my father” would normally be translated as “Eu estive/estava com o meu pai”.
In the lessons for ir/ser, there are two sentences involving going to the beach in which the prepositions differ. There is “Ela fui cedo para a praia”, and then there is “Nós fomos à praia.” Are they interchangeable, or does the qualifying “early” in the first example trigger the use of “para a” instead of “à”?
Good question, which I’ll answer in two levels.
1) About the prepositions per se – a and para can often be used interchangeably to describe movement. But each of them can also be associated with a certain subjective duration of movement, as discussed in this forum topic: “A” or “para” with verbs of motion?. The preposition “a” suggests short-term movements, while “para” suggests longer-term movements. For “ir à praia” and “ir para a praia”, people can either ignore durative perceptions and use both interchangeably, or intentionally use “à praia” to specify that it’s a short-term movement. This is why you’ll see it both ways.
2) About the presence of ‘cedo’ (early) – The term itself doesn’t determine whether you’ll use ‘a’ or ‘para’, but the choice of preposition in combination with it can have an effect on the average interpretation, at least in my personal understanding. “Ir cedo para a praia” only suggests that you’re arriving at an early hour (but might still stay until late), but “ir cedo à praia” suggests that you’re both arriving and leaving early.
Is there actually a subtle pronunciation difference between Eu disse and Ele/Ela disse? They are spelled the same way, but in the audio above it sounds slightly different (the final e is softly pronounced for Ele/ela but not for Eu).
The word ‘disse’ happened to be pronounced slightly differently in each case, but that’s because there is a range of natural variation in the pronunciation of ending Es, not because of the change in grammatical person. An (unstressed) ending E may be voiced and articulated, or not articulated at all, and speakers may fluctuate randomly between one and the other 🙂