An auxiliary (or "helper") verb is one that carries grammatical information — tense, aspect, voice — while a second verb supplies the actual meaning. Brazilian Portuguese leans on six of them: ter, haver, ser, estar, ir, and ficar. This page is your one-stop reference for which auxiliary forms which construction.
The big picture: a streamlined system
Here is what makes BR easier than its Romance cousins. French splits its compound past between two auxiliaries (avoir and être), and Italian does the same (avere and essere) — learners must memorize which verbs take which. Brazilian Portuguese has no such split. One verb, ter, forms virtually every compound tense, for every verb, with no exceptions to memorize.
The six auxiliaries divide cleanly by the grammatical job they do:
| Auxiliary | Job | Construction |
|---|---|---|
| ter | compound (perfect) tenses | ter + past participle |
| haver | compound tenses (formal alternative) | haver + past participle |
| ser | passive voice | ser + past participle |
| estar | progressive aspect | estar + gerund (-ndo) |
| ir | periphrastic future | ir + infinitive |
| ficar | resultative / continuing aspect | ficar + participle or gerund |
ter — the universal compound auxiliary
Ter combines with the past participle to form the perfect tenses. The participle never agrees with the subject in these constructions — it stays fixed in the masculine singular. This is a key difference from the passive (see ser below).
| Compound tense | ter form (eu) | Example |
|---|---|---|
| present perfect | tenho | tenho falado |
| pluperfect | tinha | tinha falado |
| future perfect | terei | terei falado |
| conditional perfect | teria | teria falado |
| perfect subjunctive | tenha | que eu tenha falado |
Eu tinha acabado de chegar quando você ligou.
I had just arrived when you called. (pluperfect)
Se eu tivesse estudado mais, teria passado na prova.
If I had studied more, I would have passed the test. (conditional perfect)
Note one BR quirk worth flagging: the present perfect with tenho falado does not mean "I have spoken (once)." It means a repeated or ongoing action up to now — "I have been speaking / I keep speaking." A single completed past action uses the simple preterite (falei), not the compound. This trips up English speakers constantly.
Ultimamente eu tenho trabalhado demais.
Lately I've been working too much. (iterative present perfect)
haver — the formal alternative
Haver can replace ter as the compound auxiliary, but it is decidedly (formal) / (literary). You will meet it in newspapers, contracts, and elevated prose, almost never in casual speech.
O réu havia confessado antes do julgamento.
The defendant had confessed before the trial. (formal, written)
Não havíamos previsto tamanha repercussão.
We had not foreseen such an impact. (formal)
In everyday conversation, a Brazilian would say tinha confessado and a gente não tinha previsto instead. Recognize haver as an auxiliary; produce ter.
ser — the passive auxiliary
Ser + past participle forms the passive voice. Unlike with ter, here the participle agrees in gender and number with the subject, because it is functioning like an adjective describing it.
A casa foi construída em 1950.
The house was built in 1950. (construída — feminine agreement)
Os documentos foram assinados ontem.
The documents were signed yesterday. (assinados — masculine plural)
Esse problema será resolvido em breve.
This problem will be solved soon. (será resolvido — future passive)
In informal BR, full ser-passives are often avoided in favor of an active sentence or the se-passive (Construíram a casa em 1950 / Construiu-se a casa...). But the ser-passive remains standard in writing and news.
estar — the progressive auxiliary
Estar + gerund (the -ndo form) expresses an action in progress. This is the BR equivalent of English "to be -ing."
Espera, eu estou cozinhando agora.
Wait, I'm cooking right now. (present progressive)
Quando cheguei, eles estavam discutindo.
When I arrived, they were arguing. (past progressive)
This is a major BR/PT-PT divergence: European Portuguese prefers estar a + infinitive (estou a cozinhar), whereas Brazil overwhelmingly uses estar + gerund (estou cozinhando). For an English speaker, the BR pattern is the easier one — it maps directly onto "-ing."
ir — the periphrastic future auxiliary
Ir + infinitive is how Brazilians actually express the future in speech, almost entirely displacing the simple synthetic future (farei, direi). It works exactly like English "going to."
Amanhã eu vou resolver isso, prometo.
Tomorrow I'm going to sort this out, I promise.
A gente vai viajar nas férias de julho.
We're going to travel over the July holidays.
Crucially, you do not add para or any preposition: it is vou comer, never "vou para comer." Inserting para changes the meaning to purpose ("I'm going [somewhere] in order to eat").
ficar — the resultative auxiliary
Ficar is the most semantically loaded of the six. As an auxiliary it does two distinct jobs:
- ficar + past participle — a resultant state, often emotional: fiquei surpreso (I was/became surprised).
- ficar + gerund — a continuing or repeated action, like "to keep -ing": fiquei esperando (I kept waiting).
Fiquei muito feliz com a notícia.
I was really happy with the news. (resultant state)
Ela ficou olhando o celular a noite toda.
She kept staring at her phone all night. (continuing action)
The contrast with estar is subtle but real: estar + gerund is a snapshot of an action in progress, while ficar + gerund emphasizes that it went on and on. Estava esperando = "was waiting"; ficou esperando = "kept on waiting (and waiting)."
Common Mistakes
❌ A casa foi construído em 1950.
Incorrect — the ser-passive participle must agree: feminine construída.
✅ A casa foi construída em 1950.
The house was built in 1950.
❌ Eu tenho falada com ele.
Incorrect — with ter, the participle never agrees; it stays falado.
✅ Eu tenho falado com ele.
I've been talking to him.
❌ Amanhã eu vou para comer fora.
Incorrect — the periphrastic future is ir + infinitive, no para.
✅ Amanhã eu vou comer fora.
Tomorrow I'm going to eat out.
❌ Eu tenho visto esse filme ontem.
Incorrect — a single completed past uses the preterite, not the BR present perfect.
✅ Eu vi esse filme ontem.
I saw that film yesterday.
❌ Eu estou a cozinhar agora.
Marked as European Portuguese; BR uses estar + gerund.
✅ Eu estou cozinhando agora.
I'm cooking right now.
Key Takeaways
- Ter forms all compound tenses, with a fixed (non-agreeing) participle — no avoir/être split.
- Haver is the (formal)/(literary) twin of ter; recognize it, but speak with ter.
- Ser forms the passive, where the participle does agree with the subject.
- Estar + gerund is the BR progressive (vs. PT-PT's estar a + infinitive).
- Ir + infinitive is the everyday future — never with para.
- Ficar adds a resultative or "keep on -ing" flavor with participles and gerunds.
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Start learning Portuguese→Related Topics
- Ter as Compound AuxiliaryA2 — How 'ter' serves as the universal helper verb for every compound tense in Brazilian Portuguese — with an invariable participle.
- Haver as Formal Compound AuxiliaryB2 — How 'havia falado' works as the elevated, formal twin of everyday 'tinha falado' — and what choosing it signals about register.
- Ser-Passive (Formal Passive Voice)B1 — How to form the analytic passive with ser plus past participle, why the participle agrees with the subject, and why Brazilians rarely use it in speech.
- Estar + Gerúndio: The ProgressiveA1 — How Brazilian Portuguese builds the present progressive with estar plus the gerund — and why estar a comer marks you as Portuguese.
- The Periphrastic Future (vou + infinitive)A1 — How Brazilians actually talk about the future: ir in the present plus an infinitive.
- Compound Tenses OverviewB1 — A map of the Brazilian Portuguese compound tenses, all built with ter + past participle, and why haver as an auxiliary is essentially literary.