Core irregular verbs in the present

What it is

The verbs you need most in Portuguese are irregular: ter (have), ir (go), vir (come), fazer (do, make), dizer (say), poder (can), querer (want), saber (know), dar (give), ver (see), ler (read), sair (leave, go out) and dormir (sleep). You can’t build them from the falar/comer/abrir pattern, so learn them as vocabulary.

The good news: most of the irregularity sits in the eu-form. Learn tenho, vou, faço, posso, sei first. The other forms are short and often predictable.

How to form it

• The eu-form is the odd one. After posso, sei, faço, digo, vejo, leio, saio, durmo, the rest of each verb behaves much better.
• No final -e: ele quer, faz, diz, never quere, faze, dize.
• dormir changes o to u only with eu: durmo, but dorme, dormimos, dormem.
• The nós form is regular for almost every verb: temos, fazemos, podemos, sabemos. The exceptions are vamos (ir) and vimos (vir), which is also the word for "we saw".
• ter and vir are twins: tenho/venho, tem/vem, têm/vêm.
• Accents. The plurals têm and vêm sound exactly like tem and vem: the circumflex is only for the eye. dá, lê, vê need their accent too (da without it means "of the"). But veem and leem lost the circumflex they had before the 1990 spelling reform.
• With a gente use the ele/ela form, as always: a gente vai, a gente tem.

When to use it

These verbs carry everyday conversation, and many come in fixed phrases worth learning whole:

• Tenho aula às oito.I have class at eight.ter: schedules
• Vou de ônibus.I go by bus.ir + de + transport
• Pode repetir, por favor?Can you repeat that, please?poder: polite requests
• Não sei.I don’t know.saber
• Como se diz isso em português?How do you say this in Portuguese?dizer
• Você me dá uma ajuda?Can you give me a hand?dar
• Você quer um café? — Quero!Would you like a coffee? — Yes, please!answer with the verb

To answer a yes/no question, repeat the verb in the eu-form: Você sabe nadar? — Sei. Pode me ajudar? — Posso.

Contrasts and traps

• Eu fazo, eu podo, eu sabo ✗ → faço, posso, sei. Don’t regularise the eu-form.
• Eles tem ✗ → eles têm. In speech the subject tells you which one you hear; in writing, the circumflex does.
• vêm (they come) and veem (they see) look alike: Eles vêm amanhã / Eles veem o mar.
• saber is for skills you have learned, poder for permission or possibility: Sei nadar (I can swim), Posso nadar aqui? (May I swim here?).
• In fast speech you will hear cê vai? (cê = você) and vamo for vamos. Understand them, but write the full forms.

If you speak Spanish

Many forms look Spanish but aren’t: tenho (tengo), venho (vengo), faço (hago), posso (puedo), quero (quiero), sei (sé), saio (salgo), durmo (duermo), vejo (veo), leio (leo), vou (voy), dou (doy). Only digo is the same. Portuguese has no diphthongs here (pode, quer, dorme, tem, vem), and the plural ends in -m or -ão: têm, vêm, fazem, vão, dão.