Portuguese/Contents/Irregular verbs

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Irregular verbs are verbs that don't follow the normal pattern used in giving tense to verbs (as is the case
with regular verbs). Instead, they have their own individual ways of adding tense.

For instance, in English we would end most past tense verb usages with the letters ED ("work", "clean",
and "thank" become "worked", "cleaned", and "thanked"). But with irregular verbs, we make much
different changes to them ("see", "think", and "do", become "saw", "thought", and "did"). The Portuguese
language has instances such as these, and we will explore them in this section.

There are several levels of irregularity in Portuguese verbs. Most irregular of all are the so-called
anomalous verbs, which are only two: ser and ir. These two verbs present stem change within the Present
Indicative tense, which means that not all persons begin the same way:

ser ir
eu sou vou
tu és vais
você é vai
ele/ela é vai
nós somos vamos
vós* sois ides
vocês são vão
eles/elas são vão

Vós is considered archaic in the vast majority of dialects. It is hardly heard today in Brazil
and most of Portugal, although in some rural regions of Portugal it is still used in everyday
language.

Furthermore, curiously, in several tenses (the Perfect and Plus-quam-perfect Preterites Indicative, the
Imperfect and Future Subjunctive) the conjugation is exactly the same for these two verbs:

indicative subjunctive
perfect plusquamperfect imperfect future
eu fui fora fosse for
tu foste foras fosses fores
ele/ela foi fora fosse for
nós fomos fôramos fôssemos formos
vós fostes fôreis fôsseis fordes
eles/elas foram foram fossem forem

There is also stem change in the Present Subjunctive, but the stems remain the same for all persons and
numbers and they differ in each verb:

ser ir
eu seja vá
tu sejas vás
ele/ela seja vá
nós sejamos vamos
vós sejais vades
eles/elas sejam vão

Tenses
The following are sections dedicated to the different tenses used for irregular verbs:

Present tense irregular verbs

Future tense irregular verbs
Imperfect tense irregular verbs
Preterite tense irregular verbs

Irregular verbs
Here is a list of the most common irregular verbs, along with their meanings (the links refer to the
wiktionary project):

-ou verbs
ir - to go
ser - to be (as in a state of being)
estar - to be (as in location or temporary state)
dar - to give

-zer/-der (so/ço-go) verbs

dizer - to say
fazer - to do
trazer - to bring
poder - can/to be able to

-nho verbs
ter - to have, to exist (Brazil)
vir - to come
pôr - to put

ler/ver
ler - to read
ver - to see

-air verbs
cair - to fall
sair - to exit

Only irregular in P.I.

 crer - to believe
fugir - to run away
rir - to laugh
subir - to climb

Only/mostly irregular in P.P.S.

caber - to fit
querer - to want
saber - to know (about)

Only irregular in first person P.I.

dormir (eu durmo) - to sleep
medir (eu meço) - to measure
ouvir (eu ouço) - to hear
pedir (eu peço) - to ask for
perder (eu perco) - to lose/to miss
seguir (eu sigo) - to follow
servir (eu sirvo) - to serve
sentir (eu sinto) - to feel
valer (eu valho) - to be valid/to be worth

Only 1-2 exceptions

requerer - to request/require

Haver
haver - very irregular verb, auxiliar and sometimes with the meaning "to exist"

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This page was last edited on 7 September 2021, at 18:02.

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