Portuguese Tenses Beyond Present Indicative

My article on verb conjugation dealt with either the infinitive form of a verb or its form in the present indicative tense.

In this article we are going to move beyond these conjugations to discuss other tenses.

I want you to consider that there are thousands of verbs that exist in Portuguese and also consider that, combined, there are many tenses and moods as well, and each requires a different conjugation for every verb that exists.

If you can imagine for a moment what that really means as far as how much there is to memorize, it might make your head hurt.

The good news is that, in real life, these tenses, moods, and conjugations are, more or less, not of as of dire importance as you might at first think.

For example, if you were to simply use the infinitive form of any verb, and say something like, “eu estar feliz,” instead of the proper conjugation, “eu estou feliz,” there is not a Brazilian speaker alive who would not understand what you meant.

It would be like you saying in English, “I to be happy.”
Though, you and I both know this is incorrect, we both still understand it to mean, “I am happy.”

The reason I am telling you this is because it is a great trick when you are in a pinch. If you cannot remember the conjugation for any verb, just resolve to using the infinitive form with as much context as you can.

I would recommend that you try to limit the use of this strategy whenever possible, but it is better to use the incorrect conjugation of a word than to use the wrong word altogether.

Given that there are so many different tenses and conjugations in Portuguese, the best way I can think to present this information to you is to simply show you the conjugated form of each tense that you are likely to use.

I will go ahead and use some regular verbs that you have already seen in my previous posts, as your familiarity with them should lend to a more natural understanding of the conjugations in other tenses.

Let’s have a look:

Conjugações Do Verbo, Dançar
Infinitive:	Dançar
Gerund:	Dançando
Participle:	Dançado
Tenses In The Indicative Mood:
Present:
eu	Danço
ele, ela, você	Dança
nós	Dançamos
eles, elas, vocês	Dançam
Imperfect Past:
eu	Dançava
ele, ela, você	Dançava
nós	Dançávamos
eles, elas, vocês	Dançavam
Past Preterit:
eu	Dancei
ele, ela, você	Dançou
nós	Dançámos
eles, elas, vocês	Dançaram
Pluperfect:
eu	Dançara
ele, ela, você	Dançara
nós	Dançáramos
eles, elas, vocês	Dançaram
Future:
eu	Dançarei
ele, ela, você	Dançará
nós	Dançaremos
eles, elas, vocês	Dançarão
Conditional:
eu	Dançaria
ele, ela, você	Dançaria
nós	Dançaríamos
eles, elas, vocês	Dançariam
Tenses In The Subjunctive Mood:
Present:
que eu	Dance
que ele	Dance
que nós	Dancemos
que eles	Dancem
Imperfect:
se eu	Dançasse
se ele	Dançasse
se nós	Dançássemos
se eles	Dançassem
Future:
quando eu	Dançar
quando ele	Dançar
quando nós	Dançarmos
quando eles	Dançarem
Tenses In The Imperative Mood:
Affirmative:
(você)	Dance
(nós)	Dancemos
(vocês)	Dancem
Negative:
(você) não	Dance
(nós) não	Dancemos
(vocês) não	Dancem
Personal infinitive:
eu	Dançar
ele, ela, você	Dançar
nós	Dançarmos
eles, elas, vocês	Dançarem
Conjugações Do Verbo, Comer
Infinitive:	Comer
Gerund:	Comendo
Participle:	Comido
Tenses In The Indicative Mood:
Present:
eu	Como
ele, ela, você	Come
nós	Comemos
eles, elas, vocês	Comem
Imperfect Past:
eu	Comia
ele, ela, você	Comia
nós	Comíamos
eles, elas, vocês	Comiam
Past Preterit:
eu	Comi
ele, ela, você	Comeu
nós	Comemos
eles, elas, vocês	Comeram
Pluperfect:
eu	Comera
ele, ela, você	Comera
nós	Comêramos
eles, elas, vocês	Comeram
Future:
eu	Comerei
ele, ela, você	Comerá
nós	Comeremos
eles, elas, vocês	Comerão
Conditional:
eu	Comeria
ele, ela, você	Comeria
nós	Comeríamos
eles, elas, vocês	Comeriam
Tenses In The Subjunctive Mood:
Present:
que eu	Coma
que ele	Coma
que nós	Comamos
que eles	Comam
Imperfect:
se eu	Comesse
se ele	Comesse
se nós	Comêssemos
se eles	Comessem
Future:
quando eu	Comer
quando ele	Comer
quando nós	Comermos
quando eles	Comerem
Tenses In The Imperative Mood:
Affirmative:
(você)	Coma
(nós)	Comamos
(vocês)	Comam
Negative:
(você) não	Coma
(nós) não	Comamos
(vocês) não	Comam
Personal infinitive:
eu	Comer
ele, ela, você	Comer
nós	Comermos
eles, elas, vocês	Comerem
Conjugações Do Verbo, Abrir
Infinitive:	Abrir
Gerund:	Abrindo
Participle:	Aberto
Tenses In The Indicative Mood:
Present:
eu	Abro
ele, ela, você	Abre
nós	Abrimos
eles, elas, vocês	Abrem
Imperfect Past:
eu	Abria
ele, ela, você	Abria
nós	Abríamos
eles, elas, vocês	Abriam
Past Preterit:
eu	Abri
ele, ela, você	Abriu
nós	Abrimos
eles, elas, vocês	Abriram
Pluperfect:
eu	Abrira
ele, ela, você	Abrira
nós	Abríramos
eles, elas, vocês	Abriram
Future:
eu	Abrirei
ele, ela, você	Abrirá
nós	Abriremos
eles, elas, vocês	Abrirão
Conditional:
eu	Abriria
ele, ela, você	Abriria
nós	Abriríamos
eles, elas, vocês	Abririam
Tenses In The Subjunctive Mood:
Present:
que eu	Abra
que ele	Abra
que nós	Abramos
que eles	Abram
Imperfect:
se eu	Abrisse
se ele	Abrisse
se nós	Abríssemos
se eles	Abrissem
Future:
quando eu	Abrir
quando ele	Abrir
quando nós	Abrirmos
quando eles	Abrirem
Tenses In The Imperative Mood:
Affirmative:
(você)	Abra
(nós)	Abramos
(vocês)	Abram
Negative:
(você) não	Abra
(nós) não	Abramos
(vocês) não	Abram
Personal infinitive:
eu	Abrir
ele, ela, você	Abrir
nós	Abrirmos
eles, elas, vocês	Abrirem

After looking at all these conjugations, I expect your brain is probably feeling the weight of just how much there really is to learn here.

At least, that is certainly how I felt when I first came up against this.

But what would be the point of making this site if I were to simply leave you alone feeling that way?

No, no. I intend to teach you the strategies I have used in order to work through these conjugations in a practical way.

The very first thing I am going to do here is to tell you that you really only need to focus on three of these tenses right now. All the others will come with time and experience.

The three that we are going to focus on are the past preterit, the future tense, and using the present progressive gerund.

You’ll notice I used the three verbs, “dançar, comer and abrir” to demonstrate the conjugations.

That is because these are all regular verbs.

Unfortunately, as you may have guessed, there is no clear pattern for conjugating irregular verbs in most of these other tenses and thus they will have to be something that you devote time and energy to learning and memorizing as you advance your studies beyond these lessons.

For the time being it is a bit beyond the scope of what I am teaching in this article.

Let’s discuss briefly the way in which these three tenses work and why they are useful to you.

We will start by looking at the past preterit tense.

For the verb, “dançar,” you saw it conjugated it as such:

Eu	dancei
ele, ela, você	dançou
nós	dançámos
eles, elas, vocês	dançaram

In English, this would be the equivalent of saying, “danced.”

I will explain with some examples:

Eu	dancei	I danced
ele, ela, você	dançou	He, she, you, it danced
nós	dançámos	We danced
eles, elas, vocês	dançaram	They, you all, those danced

These are the suffixes you will see for regular, “ar,” verbs in the past preterit tense.

Now let’s look at an, “er,” verb.

In the past preterit, the verb, eat (comer,) becomes, “ate:”

Eu	comi	I ate
ele, ela, você	comeu	He, she, you, it ate
nós	comemos	We ate
eles, elas, vocês	comeram	They, you all, those ate

These are the suffixes you will see for regular, “er,” verbs in the past preterit tense.

And, for, “ir,” verbs, they are as such:

Eu	Abri	I opened
ele, ela, você	Abriu	He, she, you, it opened
nós	Abrimos	We opened
eles, elas, vocês	Abriram	They, you all, those opened

These are the suffixes you will see for regular, “ir,” verbs in the past preterit tense.

Obviously, knowledge of this tense will be very useful to master because it allows you to speak about things that happened in the past rather than just statements about the present.

The next tense we will look at is the future tense.
It goes without saying why this is important. So, let’s jump right in.

There are a couple different ways to say that something is going to happen in the future, in Portuguese, but the easiest way to do so is to conjugate a verb in the future tense.

We will look again at the three verbs we have been using.

We’ll start by looking at an, “ar,” verb.

For the verb, “dançar,” we have the following conjugations:

Eu	dançarei	I will dance
ele, ela, você	dançará	He, she, you, it will dance
nós	dançaremos	We will dance
eles, elas, vocês	dançarão	They, you all, those will dance

As you can see, these suffixes essentially cause the statement, “will,” or, “is/am going to,” to be applied to the verb.

Looking at our, “er,” verb, “comer,” we get:

Eu	comerei	I will eat
ele, ela, você	comerá	He, she, you, it will eat
nós	comeremos	We will eat
eles, elas, vocês	comerão	They, you all, those will eat

And for an, “ir,” verb, “abrir,” we get:

Eu	abirei	I will open
ele, ela, você	abrirá	He, she, you, it will open
nós	abriremos	We will open
eles, elas, vocês	abrirão	They, you all, those will open

If you look at the future tense suffixes for a moment you should notice that they did not change regardless of whether it was an, “ar,” “er,” or, “ir” verb. That is the nice thing about the future tense, all you need to do is use the infinitive form of the verb and just tack on a couple letters to the end of it, after the, “r.”

Another nice thing about the future tense is that even irregular verbs are included in this rule, so there are no crazy conjugations you need to memorize beyond, “ei”, “á,” “emos,” and “ão.”

For example, for the irregular verb, “ser,” which, again, means, “to be,” you can say, “I will be,” by saying, “serei.”

The last tense that I believe is crucial to know is the present progressive gerund.
In Portuguese, in order to use a word that, in English, ends in, “ing,” in a present progressive sentence, you have to use some form of the verb, “to be,” (estar.)

For example, if you wanted to say, “I am running,” in Portuguese, you would have to say, “eu estou correndo.”

Which brings me to the next point; in order to use the present progressive gerund in Portuguese for any verb, both regular and irregular, we simply drop the, “r,” on the end of the infinitive form of the verb and add, “ndo.”

Let’s jump straight to the examples of using the present progressive gerund:

Using, “dançar,” drop the, “r,” and add, “ndo”:

Eu + estou	dançando	I am dancing
ele, ela, você + está	dançando	He, she, you, it is dancing
Nós + estamos	dançando	We are dancing
eles, elas, vocês + estão	dançando	They, you all, those are dancing

Using, “comer,” drop the, “r,” and add, “ndo”:

Eu + estou	comendo	I am eating
ele, ela, você + está	comendo	He, she, you, it is eating
Nós + estamos	comendo	We are eating
eles, elas, vocês + estão	comendo	They, you all, those are eating

Using, “abrir,” drop the, “r” and add “ndo”:

Eu + estou	abrindo	I amopening
ele, ela, você + está	abrindo	He, she, you, it is opening
Nós + estamos	abrindo	We are opening
eles, elas, vocês + estão	abrindo	They, you all, those are opening

So, once again, in order to use the present progressive gerund, that is to say, a verb that, in English, ends in, “ing,” you simply take off the, “r,” in the infinitive form and replace it with, “ndo.” This is true for both Regular and Irregular verbs.

I will conclude this article on tenses here. It is very important that you do not let all these different conjugations bog you down at this point. From my experience, it can be very easy to lose interest in learning Portuguese when confronting all these conjugations, and if you are feeling that way, then I want to offer a suggestion… go ahead and just take a minute for yourself to relax, and then when you feel you are ready, go back and re-read this article.

In my article, Making Progress With Brazilian Portuguese, I made mention of the fact that everything in language is connected, and these conjugations are no exception.

You will see, hear, and use them every time you immerse yourself in some Portuguese circumstance.

To further support your language-learning journey, check out my comprehensive Portuguese Resources Page for a curated list of tools and programs that will accelerate your progress.

-Galilee Berman