More irregular & stem-changing presents

The short answer

Most Portuguese verbs are regular in the present, but a group of very common ones changes in one place only: the eu form. Eu peço, eu ouço, eu durmo, eu prefiro, but você pede, ouve, dorme, prefere. Learn each verb as a pair, the eu form plus the ele form, and the rest of the present follows the regular pattern.

How to form it

The patterns behind the table:

• Irregular eu forms: pedir → peço, ouvir → ouço, perder → perco, valer → valho. The other persons are regular: pede, ouve, perde, vale.
• pôr and trazer also change elsewhere: ponho, põe, pomos, põem; trago, traz, trazemos, trazem. Note traz with no final e, like faz and diz.
• e → i in the eu form: preferir → prefiro, sentir → sinto, servir → sirvo, seguir → sigo, repetir → repito, vestir → visto, conseguir → consigo. Everyone else keeps the e: prefere, sente, serve, segue.
• o → u in the eu form: dormir → durmo, cobrir → cubro, descobrir → descubro, tossir → tusso.
• u → o with você/ele and eles: subir → sobe, sobem; fugir → foge, fogem (eu fujo). But eu subo, nós subimos.
• -ear verbs add an i wherever the stress falls on the stem: passear → passeio, passeia, passeiam, but passeamos. Frear and pentear work the same way, and so does odiar: odeio.
• rir and cair: rio, ri, rimos, riem; caio, cai, caímos, caem (like sair: saio, sai).
• Spelling only, same sound: conhecer → conheço, proteger → protejo, dirigir → dirijo, distinguir → distingo.

When to use it

These are everyday verbs, so you need them as soon as you describe a routine: what you order at the bakery, how much you sleep, how you get to work, what you bring from home.

• Prefiro ficar em casa hoje, tô muito cansada.I'd rather stay at home today, I'm really tired.prefiro / prefere
• Eu durmo cedo, mas a minha irmã dorme depois da meia-noite.I go to sleep early, but my sister sleeps after midnight.durmo / dorme
• Sempre peço janela quando viajo de avião.I always ask for a window seat when I fly.pedir → peço
• Quando perco o ônibus das sete, chego atrasado no trabalho.When I miss the seven o'clock bus, I'm late for work.perder → perco

Contrasts and traps

• Listen to the vowel. In dorme, sobe, prefere, serve the stressed vowel is open; in the eu form it changes to u or i: durmo, subo, prefiro, sirvo. Saying each pair aloud is the quickest way to fix it.
• sinto ≠ sento. Sinto is "I feel" (sentir); sento is "I sit" (sentar). Sinto frio means I feel cold; sento na frente means I sit at the front.
• trago ≠ traio. "I bring" is trago. Traio exists, but it comes from trair and means "I betray".
• rio is also the noun "river", so eu rio (I laugh) looks like o rio.
• perder a hora means to oversleep: Se não ponho o despertador, perco a hora.
• pôr keeps its circumflex to tell it from the preposition por; pomos and ponho have none.

If you speak Spanish

The Spanish diphthongs do not exist in these verbs: prefiero → prefiro, duermo → durmo, siento → sinto, pierdo → perco. Where Spanish adds a g (pongo, traigo, oigo, valgo, caigo), Portuguese has its own forms: ponho, trago, ouço, valho, caio. And the e → i change stays in the eu form only: pide → pede, sirve → serve, sigue → segue, while subir does the opposite of Spanish: sube → sobe.