Brazilian Portuguese Grammar

 

 

 

Basically, verbs are divided into:

• Verbos regulares (regular verbs), which don't change their roots throughout their conjugation;

• Verbos irregulares (irregular verbs), which go through changes in their roots.

 

Another way to classify verbs is according to the role they play in a sentence:

• Verbos auxiliares (auxiliary verbs), which form compound tenses, the passive voice and also verb phrases;

• Verbos principais (main verbs), which hold the most important information of the discourse.

 

Verbs can also be:

• Verbos defectivos (defective verbs), which lack whole conjugations or aren't simply used in some persons.

• Verbos completos (complete verbs), which have all verb forms.

 

You should also know the categories below:

• Verbos anômalos (anomalous verbs), which  present so many irregularities that go under this special category.

• Verbos abundantes (abundant verbs), which  present more than one verb form, especially double participles.

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Auxiliary verbs form compound verb tenses (tempos verbais compostos) and verb phrases (locuções verbais). Just like in any other language, the most important verb is verb to be, which corresponds to two different verbs in Portuguese: ser and estar. Other auxiliary verbs are ter (to have), haver (there to be) and ir (to go).

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Regular verbs are those which follow a conjugation paradigm (paradigma de conjugação).

 

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Irregular verbs change their roots throughout their conjugation. They don't follow patterns, so you need to learn them through use and practice. The 20 most irregular verbs in the language are:

aprazer (to please), caber (to fit), crer (to believe), dar (to give), dizer (to say), estar (to be), fazer (to do, to make), haver (there to be), ir (to go), ler (to read), poder (can, may), pôr (to put) and its compounds, querer (to want), rir (to laugh), saber (to know), ser (to be), ter (to have), trazer (to bring), ver (to see) and vir (to come). 

Their compounds are also irregular.

 

List of the 20 most irregular verbs

 Reference: Conver at  http://www.inf.ufrgs.br/~emiliano/conver/geral.html on October 5, 2005.

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Defective verbs lack certain conjugations, such as falir (to go bankrupt) and explodir (to explode), or are only used in certain persons, such as verbs that refer to weather conditions (chover, gear, fazer frio, etc), only used in the 3rd person singular, and those that refer to animal sounds (latir, mugir, miar, coaxar, etc), only used in the 3rd persons singular and plural. However, verbs for animal sounds can be used with all grammatical persons figuratively.

 

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Anomalous verbs are irregular verbs that present so many irregularities in their conjugation that should be studied separately. The most prominent verbs are ser (to be) and ir (to go).

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Unlike defective verbs, abundant verbs have more than one verb form, especially double participles.

 

 

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