Portuguese verb conjugation: charts, tables, and the 100 verbs that matter

Start conjugation with ser, estar, ter, ir and fazer: their present-tense chart is below. Then explore the regular -ar/-er/-ir patterns and the four useful tense constructions covered here. This is a starting point for practice, not a complete B1 grammar syllabus or a guarantee of Celpe-Bras readiness.

Three endings instead of a thousand forms

Regular verbs split into three classes by their infinitive ending — -ar, -er, and -ir — and every verb inside a class follows the exact same pattern. Learn falar, comer and abrir, and you can already conjugate hundreds of look-alike verbs.

falar— to speak, to talkcomer— to eatabrir— to open

The pattern is easy to abstract: -o for "eu" in all three classes, -amos/-emos/-imos for "nós", and "você"/"vocês" just tack -a/-am, -e/-em, -e/-em onto the stem. Once the pattern sticks, a brand-new regular verb takes seconds to conjugate, not a fresh rule to memorize.

The spoken-BR reality: 4 forms, not 6

Classroom conjugation tables list six rows: eu, tu, ele/ela/você, nós, vós, eles/elas/vocês. Real spoken Brazilian Portuguese only needs four of them. Tu is alive and well in some regions' everyday speech (the south, for instance), but the neutral standard this product teaches uses você everywhere another language would use "you" informally. Grammatically, você conjugates as third person — "he/she" — even though it addresses the listener directly. Vós barely survives outside liturgy and old texts — you can safely drop that row from your mental model.

There's also a fifth, informal option — a gente ("we," casual register) — but it doesn't add a new form: a gente conjugates exactly like você, third-person singular ("a gente vai," never "a gente vamos"). That's why none of the tables below give it its own row.

Four tenses that actually get you through a text

Each one does a different job:

• Presente — something happening now, a habit, a general fact: "eu falo português," "a loja abre às 9."
• Pretérito perfeito — one completed action in the past: "ontem eu falei com ela."
• Pretérito imperfeito — background, repetition, description in the past: "quando eu era criança, eu falava só português."
• Futuro (vou + infinitive) — plans and the spoken future: "amanhã eu vou falar com ele."

The same three model verbs, in pretérito perfeito:

Look at the "nós" row: falamos, comemos, abrimos — the exact same words as in the presente table above. That's not a copy-paste error, it's a real feature of all three regular classes: the "nós" form is IDENTICAL between presente and pretérito perfeito, and only the rest of the sentence tells them apart ("nós falamos português" — now, habitually — versus "nós falamos ontem" — yesterday, once).

Pretérito imperfeito — background and repeated past:

The spoken future: vou + infinitive

School grammar has a synthetic futuro simples (falarei, comerei, abrirei) and a condicional (falaria) — both genuinely show up in writing and news, so they're worth recognizing — but in spoken Brazilian Portuguese, people almost always build the future by conjugating ir in the presente and tacking on an infinitive.

This is the construction you'll actually hear: "vou tentar" (I'll give it a try), "vamos ver" (we'll see), "ela vai chegar" (she's about to arrive). Recognize the synthetic future when you read it — building it from scratch yourself isn't essential at this stage.

Ten verbs you can't get around

These next verbs can't be derived from any regular pattern — their forms just have to be learned individually. There aren't many, and most of them you already use every single day: ser, estar, ter, ir, fazer, poder, querer, saber, dizer, vir.

ser— to be (permanent, inherent)estar— to be (temporary state, location)ter— to haveir— to gofazer— to do, to makepoder— can, to be able to

Presente and pretérito perfeito for the six that matter most — with a note under each table flagging exactly where it's easiest to slip up:

Four more are already recognizable at least in the presente (their pretérito perfeito is irregular too — quis, soube, disse, vim — but those are better met one at a time, in context, than drilled in advance):

querer— to wantsaber— to knowdizer— to say, to tell, to meanvir— to come

Vir vs. ver: one trap, easily explained

Ser vs. estar deserves its own drill

Portuguese's most famous trap: both translate as "to be," but ser is for what stays true — profession, nationality, personality — and estar is for what could change by tomorrow — a state, a location, how you're feeling. "Ela é médica" (she's a doctor — a permanent fact) and "ela está de férias" (she's on vacation — temporary) look and sound completely different, but the actual skill — picking the right one on the fly — is worth drilling with questions, not just tables.

The Mnezo trainer has a dedicated ser vs. estar drill for exactly that — it isn't about the forms (you've already seen those above), it's about choosing the right verb in context.

How to actually learn this, not just read it

Conjugation tables are a reference, not something to memorize in one sitting — nobody holds fifty forms in their head at once. A working strategy has three parts:

1. Learn the verbs as words first. If the infinitive falar, comer or dizer is already anchored in memory by sound — which is exactly what the mnemonics in the Mnezo trainer are for, method explained in the memorization guide — conjugating it in context gets noticeably easier.
2. Drill one tense at a time, to automaticity. Mnezo has dedicated exercises for pretérito perfeito and pretérito imperfeito — short sessions on one specific pattern instead of everything at once.
3. Listen to the forms, not just read them. The written differences ("tem" / "têm," "pode" / "pôde") often come through more clearly by ear than on the page — your ear picks them up faster than your eye does.

For practice, use the study selection with translations and audio: "Top 100 Brazilian Portuguese verbs".

Portuguese verb conjugation FAQ

How many tenses do I actually need?

Four for B1: presente, pretérito perfeito, pretérito imperfeito, and the spoken future (vou + infinitive). Classroom charts list more; spoken Brazilian Portuguese does not use them all.

Where is the Portuguese verb conjugation chart?

At the top of this page: present tense of ser, estar, ter, ir and fazer. Regular -ar/-er/-ir tables and the pretérito charts follow. A printable PDF is not a separate article — this page is the chart.

What is the difference between ser and estar?

Both translate as "to be." Ser is for what stays true (profession, nationality, character). Estar is for what can change (mood, location, a temporary state). The forms are in the chart above; picking the right verb is a dedicated drill, not a second table.

Which verbs should I conjugate first?

For practice, use the study selection with translations and audio: Top 100 Brazilian Portuguese verbs.