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Regular -ER/-IR Verbs in the Simple Past

-ER Verbs in the Simple Past

Regular verbs in the -ER group include escreverto write and correrto run . Let’s see how they would be conjugated in the pretérito perfeitosimple past :

Indicativo

Eles escreveram na mesaThey wrote on the table

    eu escreviI wrote tu escrevesteYou sing.,inf. wrote ele / ela escreveuHe / She wrote você escreveuyou formal wrote nós escrevemoswe wrote eles / elas escreveramthey wrote vocês escreveramyou pl. wrote

Indicativo

O cão correu até eleThe dog ran to him

    eu corriI ran tu corresteYou sing.,inf. ran ele / ela correuHe / She ran você correuyou formal ran nós corremoswe ran eles / elas correramthey ran vocês correramyou pl. ran

Once you figure out the verb stems, which in this case are escrev- and corr-, you just add the correct ending (-i, -este, -eu, -emos, -eram). Notice that aside from the first person singular, the endings always start with e- for these -ER verbs. This is a good tip to get you started whenever you’re trying to remember the correct conjugations!

Here are couple more examples of common regular -ER verbs:

Indicativo

Eu vivi em nova iorque dois anosI lived in New York for two years.

    eu viviI lived tu vivesteYou sing.,inf. lived ele / ela viveuHe / She lived você viveuyou formal lived nós vivemoswe lived eles / elas viveramthey lived vocês viveramyou pl. lived

Indicativo

Eles comeram num restauranteThey ate at a restaurant

    eu comiI ate tu comesteYou sing.,inf. ate ele / ela comeuHe / She ate você comeuyou formal ate nós comemoswe ate eles / elas comeramthey ate vocês comeramyou pl. ate

-IR Verbs in the Simple Past

The regular endings for the -IR group are the same as the -ER group, except that they all start with i- instead of e- (-i, -iste, -iu, -imos, -iram).
Some examples of regular verbs in this group are partirto leave, to break , dividirto divide and decidirto decide . Their respective verb stems are part-, divid-, and decid-. Let’s take a look at the conjugations:

Indicativo

Os navios partiram de LisboaThe ships departed from Lisbon

    eu partiI left tu partisteYou sing.,inf. left ele / ela partiuHe / She left você partiuyou formal left nós partimoswe left eles / elas partiramthey left vocês partiramyou pl. left

Indicativo

    eu dividiI shared tu dividisteYou sing.,inf. shared ele / ela dividiuHe / She shared você dividiuyou formal shared nós dividimoswe shared eles / elas dividiramthey shared vocês dividiramyou pl. shared

Indicativo

Ela decidiu mudar de casaShe decided to move out of her house.

    eu decidiI decided tu decidisteYou sing.,inf. decided ele / ela decidiuHe / She decided você decidiuyou formal decided nós decidimoswe decided eles / elas decidiramthey decided vocês decidiramyou pl. decided

 

Comments

  • Fantastic, I have never learn’t the simple past before. I found this most helpful and clear for the regular verbs.
    Muito obrigada
    Laura Parsons

  • So, the preterite and the present first person plural for ER and IR verbs are the same? i.e. “nós dividimos” can mean either “we divide” or “we divided”? Não gosto disso. 🙂

    • Yes, for regular ER and IR verbs, the presente do indicativo and pretérito perfeito do indicativo are both the same. So you have to rely on context. Haha, I don’t like it either!

  • Hello,
    So there’s no really difference in pronunciation of ‘dividimos’ (we share/ we shared)? And we can only verify by the context?
    Thanks.

  • As a French, I keep thinking that Portuguese is quite similar to French (both are romance languages) but also much simpler.
    * conjugations seem simpler (less exceptions, even though there are a few)
    * the pronunciation is very logical once we know the rules
    * and while French has many doubled letters that are sometimes easy to forget, Portuguese hasn’t (prometer – promettre, coluna – colonne, and so on)

    I think Portuguese may well be the easiest language to learn for French people. At least for me, it’s very pleasing 🙂

    • Olá, Matthieu. I’ve gotten mixed feedback from French speakers in general (maybe some just get frustrated because they can’t shake off the French R pronunciation!), but personally, I agree that there are enough similarities between Portuguese and French to give everyone an easier time 🙂 Just pay attention to false friends such as pourtant/portanto, normalement/normalmente, or ressenti/ressentir, and be careful with how you pronounce “au”, “eu” and “ou” in Portuguese!

  • I’ve also noticed the similarities between French and Portuguese, having studied French for many years in school. I personally find Portuguese harder, with a lot of tongue twisting pronunciation scenarios, as well as being harder to understand the spoken language with the way Portuguese “smushes” words together. I do remember though that verb conjugation in French was nasty.

  • I agree, although the French drop a lot of vowels and syllables and elide their words. And all the slang is hard to keep up with

  • Having just started learning verbs in preterite simple form and being totally confused, I found this quite refreshing to see with the explanations.

  • In the previous section both pensei and achei are used for I thought. Excuse the pun but I thought the verb achar was to dings and not to think.
    Could you explain why the two verbs are used to describe the same past action? There is no explanation in the section.
    Thanks.

    • Sure! The two verbs overlap to an extent, but pensar relates more to the act itself of thinking, while achar refers more to a specific opinion you hold. Here’s an example of a case where they overlap:
      – O que acha o Pedro dos seus colegas?
      – O que pensa o Pedro dos/sobre os seus colegas?
      (What does Pedro think about his colleagues?)

      An example where they don’t:
      – Estou a pensar em ti. (I’m thinking about you)
      – Estou a achar em ti. (gibberish)

      ‘Achar’ may also mean to find, both in a literal and in a subjective sense. For example:
      – Achei aquilo que procurava! (I found what I was looking for!)
      – Achei o filme demasiado longo. (I found the movie too long)

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