Hello, there!

Last month we had the first post of the irregular verbs series and today I will be covering the simple past tense (I had, I did, I worked etc) of the main irregular verbs in Portuguese.

Make sure you know these conjugations inside and out because they are very important for your fluency. Also remember that the persons for each conjugation are eu, você, ele, nós, vocês and eles; I didn’t include the tu form (only used in some regions in Brazil) and the vós form (not used at all!).

Vamos começar!

First conjugation (verbs ending in -ar)

Dar (to give) – dei, deu, deu, demos, deram, deram
Estar (to be) – estive, esteve, esteve, estivemos, estiveram, estiveram.

Second conjugation (verbs ending in -er)

Caber (to fit) – coube, coube, coube, coubemos, couberam, couberam
Dizer (to say) – disse, disse, disse, dissemos, disseram, disseram
Fazer (to do) – fiz, fez, fez, fizemos, fizeram, fizeram
Ler (to read) – li, leu, leu, lemos, leram, leram
Poder (to be able) – pude, pôde, pôde, pudemos, puderam, puderam
Pôr* (to put) – pus, pôs, pôs, pusemos, puseram, puseram
Querer (to want) – quis, quis, quis, quisemos, quiseram, quiseram
Saber (to know) – soube, soube, soube, soubemos, souberam, souberam
Ser (to be) – fui, foi, foi, fomos, foram, foram
Ter (to have) – tive, teve, teve, tivemos, tiveram, tiveram
Trazer (to bring) – trouxe, trouxe, trouxe, trouxemos, trouxeram, trouxeram
Ver (to see) – vi, viu, viu, vimos, viram, viram

*The verb pôr is under the second conjugation because it was originally written as “poer” in ancient Portuguese.

Third conjugation (verbs ending in -ir)

Ir (to go) – fui, foi, foi, fomos, foram, foram
Vir (to come) – vim, veio, veio, viemos, vieram, vieram

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