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
 * p&ocirc;r - 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"