A1 · The present tense
Present tense: -ar verbs
Your only ending is an -s on « he » — and here the -s belongs to « you ».
At a glance
- Remember
- você speaks in the third person.
- When
- Before the past
- The past
- Past linked to the present
- The present
- The future
- Completed in the future
The present — What holds at the moment, what is under way, or what is always the case.
- Form
- (eu) faloI speak
- Signal words
- -o
- -as
- -a
- -amos
- -am
- Trap
- Wrong:Você falas muito bem.Right:Você fala muito bem.
Your turn
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The form
How the forms are built
Each row gives the meaning first, then the form in Portuguese. The colours show what changes from one form to the next.
stem (regular) person ending
| I speak | (eu) falo |
| you speak | (tu) falas |
| he speaks, you speak | (ele, ela, você) fala |
| we speak | (nós) falamos |
| you speak, plural and formal | (vós) falais |
| they speak, you all speak | (eles, elas, vocês) falam |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is aboutThe word that calls for it
The stem stays, the ending carries the person.
Trabalho num escritório.I work in an office.
The pronoun appears only when it is stressed.
Falamos amanhã.We will talk tomorrow.
você takes the third person.
Você mora aqui?Do you live here?
The negation goes in front of the verb.
Não moro em Lisboa.I do not live in Lisbon.
Example sentences
Compro pão todos os dias.I buy bread every day.
Onde trabalhas?Where do you work?
Eles moram no Porto.They live in Porto.
Não pagamos agora.We are not paying now.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
Saying você and then conjugating for « you » mixes two ways of addressing somebody. Você falas is not an over-polite form, it is no form at all: você takes the same ending as ele. The mistake is common because você feels like « you » and behaves like « he » — and English, which has one word for all of it, gives no warning at any point.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
The infinitive drops its -ar and six endings go onto the stem: -o, -as, -a, -amos, -ais, -am. Three verbs in four belong to this group, so it is the one to have cold.
Falar therefore gives falo, falas, fala, falamos, falais, falam. The fifth form, the vós one, is hardly ever heard in Portugal; it is here for completeness.
Look at the third and second person side by side: fala is « he speaks » and falas is « you speak ». English puts its only ending, -s, on the first of those two, so the single letter you already have is attached to the wrong person here — and the pull is strong, because both languages are using an s.
The subject pronoun stays away unless it is being stressed: Falo português, not eu falo português. With você and o senhor the verb goes into the third person: você fala, never você falas.
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The verbs on this page, in every form: morar · pagar · trabalhar