Present subjunctive: forms

What it is

The presente do subjuntivo (present subjunctive) is the verb form Portuguese uses after words that express a wish, a request, a feeling or a doubt about someone else’s action: Espero que você goste. Tomara que não chova. In Brazil it is very much alive in everyday speech, not only in writing, so you will hear it every day.

This topic is about building the forms. When to use them comes next: wishes and emotions (pt-g-051), doubt and impersonal expressions (pt-g-052), purpose and time (pt-g-053) and relative clauses (pt-g-054).

Good news first: you already know many of these forms. The você imperative (Fale mais devagar, Venha cá, Fique tranquilo) is the present subjunctive.

How to form it

Take the eu form of the present indicative, drop the -o, and add endings with the "opposite" vowel: -e for -ar verbs, -a for -er and -ir verbs.

Eu and você share one form, so the subject is usually said out loud: que eu fale, que você fale. In speech a gente (with the 3rd-person form) is far more common than nós: que a gente fale.

Irregular eu-forms carry over

Because the stem comes from the eu-form, whatever is irregular there passes into every person of the subjunctive:

The same goes for -ir verbs that change their vowel in the eu-form: sentir → sinto → sinta, preferir → prefiro → prefira, servir → sirvo → sirva, seguir → sigo → siga, conseguir → consigo → consiga. The change stays in every person, nós included: sintamos, durmamos.

Seven verbs with their own forms

The rule breaks down where the eu-form doesn’t end in -o (sou, estou, vou, dou, sei, hei), and for querer. Learn these seven by heart:

Mind the accents: dê keeps its circumflex (without it, de is the preposition "of") and vá its acute accent. The plural deem lost its accent in the 2009 spelling reform; older texts write dêem. Haver in the sense "there is" only uses haja: Espero que haja tempo.

Spelling changes that keep the sound

Verbs in -car, -gar and -çar change a letter so the consonant keeps its sound: ficar → fique, chegar → chegue, pagar → pague, começar → comece. In other verbs the change is already visible in the eu-form: conheço → conheça, protejo → proteja, sigo → siga.

Try a few before reading on:

Where you will meet it

Most of the time the subjunctive sits in a clause introduced by que, after a trigger:

• wishes and requests: quero que, espero que, peço que, tomara que
• feelings: que bom que, que pena que, fico feliz que
• doubt and evaluation: duvido que, não acho que, é importante que, and talvez before the verb
• purpose: para que

It also appears on its own in good wishes (Que vocês sejam muito felizes!) and in polite commands with você (Fale, Venha, Fique).

Contrasts and traps

• One vowel changes the meaning. Você fala (you speak) vs que você fale (that you speak); ele come vs que ele coma. Listen for the vowel: -ar verbs get e, -er and -ir verbs get a.
• Start from eu, not from the infinitive. faça, not faza; tenha, not tena; possa, not poda (that’s "prunes").
• seje, esteje. You will hear them in casual speech in some regions, but they are stigmatised. Use seja and esteja.
• dê vs de, vá vs vai. Espero que ele dê notícias needs the circumflex. Talvez ele vá is subjunctive; ele vai is indicative.
• haja vs aja. They sound the same. Haja is from haver (Tomara que haja ingresso), aja from agir, "to act" (Espero que ele aja rápido).

If you speak Spanish

The machinery is the same as in Spanish (eu-form, opposite vowel), so the system comes easily. The danger is the forms that are almost the same: sea → seja, esté → esteja, vaya → vá, sepa → saiba, quiera → queira, haya → haja, tenga → tenha, venga → venha, haga → faça, pueda → possa, pida → peça, oiga → ouça, salga → saia, traiga → traga. Diga is identical in both languages. Portuguese stems never take the Spanish diphthongs ie and ue: duerma → durma, pierda → perca, prefiera → prefira.