Começar

Começar means to begin or to start. It is a high-frequency regular -ar verb, but it carries one of the most useful spelling lessons in Portuguese: the cedilla (ç) appears before a and o, while a plain c appears before e and i. The verb is completely regular in its sounds — what changes is only the spelling, so that the stem keeps the same soft /s/ pronunciation everywhere.

The ç/c rule — why the spelling shifts

In Portuguese, c is pronounced /s/ before e and i, but /k/ before a, o, and u. To keep the soft /s/ sound of começar in front of a and o, the spelling switches to ç. So the rule is mechanical and predictable:

• Before a or o → write ç: começo, começa, começamos, começávamos.
• Before e or i → write c: comecei, comece, comecemos.

The clearest illustration is the present tense versus the preterite: eu começo (with ç, before o) but eu comecei (with c, before e). English has nothing like this — we never change a letter just to preserve a sound. The closest analogy is English "picnic → picnicking," where we add a k to keep the hard sound; Portuguese does the reverse with ç to keep the soft sound.

Presente do indicativo

The present tense is where the cedilla is most visible, because four of the six forms have the stem followed by o or a.

Pretérito perfeito

Here the endings start with e and i, so the cedilla disappears and a plain c returns. The first-person singular comecei is the form learners most often misspell.

Notice the pattern: comecei (c, before e), but começou / começaram (ç, before o/a). The nós form começamos is identical to the present — context tells you which tense is meant.

Pretérito imperfeito

The imperfect endings begin with a (-ava), so the cedilla stays throughout.

Futuro do presente & futuro do pretérito (conditional)

Both future tenses are built on the full infinitive começar, so no spelling change ever occurs — the ç is already part of the infinitive.

In everyday Brazilian speech the synthetic future is usually replaced by ir + infinitive: vai começar rather than começará. (informal)

Presente do subjuntivo

The present subjunctive of an -ar verb takes -e endings, so the stem is followed by e everywhere — and the cedilla disappears completely. Every form uses a plain c.

Imperfeito & futuro do subjuntivo

The imperfect subjunctive uses -asse endings (vowel a → cedilla stays), and the future subjunctive — built on the third-person plural preterite stem começar- — also keeps the ç.

Imperativo

The imperative borrows its forms from the subjunctive (except affirmative tu, which comes from the present indicative minus the final -s). Watch the cedilla closely: comece has a plain c (before e), but the nós command comecemos also uses c.

The affirmative tu form começa keeps the cedilla because it ends in a; the você form comece drops it. In Brazil, começa! (você-style or tu-style) is what you'll hear most.

Non-finite forms

começar a + infinitive

The most important construction with this verb is começar a + infinitive, meaning to start to / begin doing. Unlike English, where "start" can take either a bare infinitive or a gerund ("started to run" / "started running"), Portuguese always uses the preposition a plus the infinitive — never the gerund. This is the standard inceptive (beginning-of-action) marker in the language.

You can also use começar com (start with) for the thing or person you begin from, and começar por (begin by) for the first step in a sequence.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• The verb is phonetically regular; only the spelling shifts: ç before a/o, c before e/i.
• Memorize the contrast começo / comecei — present has the cedilla, preterite eu-form does not.
• The present subjunctive and você imperative (comece) lose the cedilla entirely.
• Always use começar a + infinitive — never a gerund — for "start doing something."