Contar

Contar is a completely regular -ar verb, but its usefulness comes from one fact that surprises English speakers: it means both to count (numbers) and to tell (a story, a secret, the news). The same verb covers two ideas that English keeps in entirely separate words. On top of that, contar anchors one of the most common idioms in Brazilian Portuguese — contar com, "to count on / rely on someone" — which mirrors the English "count on" almost perfectly. Once you know the regular -ar endings, the only thing to learn here is which preposition goes with which meaning.

Meaning 1: to count

Meaning 2: to tell (a story, news, a secret)

Notice the fixed collocation contar uma história — "to tell a story." Portuguese does not "say a story" (dizer uma história is wrong); it counts one, a metaphor that survives from the old sense of contar as "to reckon, to recount."

Presente do indicativo

Perfectly regular. The você form conta is also the everyday spoken imperative — Me conta! (Tell me!).

Pretérito perfeito

The nós form contamos is identical in the present and the preterite — context disambiguates (a hallmark of all regular -ar verbs).

Pretérito imperfeito

Note the accent on contávamos (the nós form is always stressed on the antepenultimate syllable — con-tá-va-mos).

Futuro do presente

In everyday speech, Brazilians prefer vou contar (ir + infinitive) over the simple future.

Futuro do pretérito (conditional)

Subjunctive

Presente do subjuntivo

Regular -ar verbs flip their theme vowel to e in the present subjunctive: conte, contem.

Imperfeito do subjuntivo

Futuro do subjuntivo

Note that the future subjunctive contar is spelled identically to the infinitive — true of all regular -ar verbs.

Imperative

In real Brazilian speech the everyday command is the tu form conta even when addressing someone as você: Conta aí! / Me conta! (Come on, tell me!). The textbook conte sounds noticeably more formal.

Non-finite forms

The key constructions: which preposition?

This is where contar earns its keep. The preposition completely changes the meaning, so memorize these as set patterns. (See the verb–preposition list for the broader system.)

contar com (alguém / algo) — to count on, rely on, expect:

contar para / contar a (alguém) — to tell someone. In speech, contar pra (with para reduced to pra) dominates; contar a is more formal/written:

The thing told is the direct object, and the person told is introduced by para/a: contar [a notícia] [para alguém]. With a pronoun, Brazilians say me conta, te conto, conta pra ele.

Source-language note for English speakers

English keeps "count" and "tell" as unrelated verbs; Portuguese unites them under contar, exactly as Old English once had "tell" meaning both "recount" and "tally" (the "bank teller" is a fossil of this). So the merger is less alien than it first looks. The trap for English speakers is the "tell" pattern: English says "tell me something" with no preposition, but Portuguese needs contar algo para/a alguém — the person is a prepositional object, not a bare indirect object in writing (though the clitic me/te/lhe covers it in compact speech). Also resist using dizer for stories: you conta uma história, never diz uma história.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• contar is a regular -ar verb (no spelling changes), meaning both to count and to tell.
• contar com = to count on / rely on someone or something.
• contar para/pra (a) = to tell someone; the story is the direct object, the listener is the prepositional object.
• The fixed collocation is contar uma história — never dizer uma história.
• Watch the accent on contávamos and the spoken preference for conta / me conta over the formal conte.