Defective Verb List | Portuguese (Brazil) Grammar

Some Brazilian Portuguese verbs are defective: they are missing certain forms entirely. The gaps are not laziness or oversight — for these verbs, particular forms either never developed, sound clumsy, or collide with another word. This page catalogs the main defective verbs, shows you exactly which forms are missing, and — most importantly — shows you what native speakers say instead.

What "defective" means and why it happens

A defective verb (verbo defectivo) lacks one or more cells in its conjugation table. The most commonly missing cells are the first-person singular present indicative (the eu form) and, by extension, the entire present subjunctive, which is built from it. A few verbs are even more reduced.

There are two recurring reasons for the gaps:

Phonetic awkwardness. The expected eu form would produce a sound or syllable that Portuguese speakers instinctively avoid — often because it would sound identical or near-identical to another, unrelated word.
Limited meaning. Some verbs only ever describe third-person or impersonal events (a plant colors, a company goes bankrupt), so a first-person form was never needed and never formed.

💡

The core skill with defective verbs is recognition, not production. They appear far more in writing than in speech. When you need a missing form, you don't invent it — you swap in a synonym or rephrase. That is exactly what Brazilians do.

For an English speaker this is not as strange as it sounds. English has defective verbs too: the modal can has no infinitive (to can in this sense doesn't exist — you say to be able to), no participle, and no future (will can is impossible — you say will be able to). When English hits the gap, it reaches for a periphrasis with be able to. Portuguese does the same thing.

Group A: missing the eu form (and present subjunctive)

These are the classic textbook defectives. They lack the eu present form, so they also lack the entire present subjunctive (which derives from it). All other forms — the rest of the present, the preterite, the imperfect, the future, the conditional — exist normally.

Verb	Gloss	Missing forms	Workaround
colorir	to color	eu present; present subjunctive	use pintar (to paint) or dar cor
abolir	to abolish	eu present; present subjunctive	use eliminar / acabar com
demolir	to demolish	eu present; present subjunctive	use derrubar / destruir
banir	to ban	eu present; present subjunctive	use proibir / expulsar
explodir	to explode (transitive)	eu present often avoided	use detonar / fazer explodir

The reason colorir has no eu form is the phonetic clash described above: the expected form would land too close to existing words and simply never stabilized. So instead of inventing it, a Brazilian rephrases.

Eu vou pintar o desenho de azul.

I'm going to color the drawing blue. (workaround for the missing eu form of colorir)

As crianças colorem com muito capricho.

The kids color very carefully. (the eles form exists and is fine)

A prefeitura quer demolir o prédio antigo.

The city hall wants to demolish the old building. (infinitive is always safe)

Eles aboliram a escravidão em 1888.

They abolished slavery in 1888. (preterite exists normally)

Notice the pattern in those examples: when the form exists (the eles form, the infinitive, the preterite), the verb behaves perfectly. The gap is narrow and specific.

Group B: heavily reduced verbs

A second group is missing far more — sometimes everything except a few stressed forms. These are genuinely rare and mostly literary or legalistic (literary, formal).

falir — to go bankrupt

Traditionally avoided in the singular present (eu, você/ele); the plural forms and the past tenses are fine. In modern BR, falir is most natural in the preterite and in compound forms.

A empresa faliu no ano passado.

The company went bankrupt last year. (preterite — fully natural)

Eles temem que mais lojas quebrem este ano.

They fear more shops may go under this year. (use quebrar — the present subjunctive of falir is avoided)

precaver-se — to take precautions

This pronominal verb is defective in the present eu/ele forms and in the present subjunctive. It is also a famous trap because people wrongly conjugate it as if it contained ver (to see) — it does not. The safe move is to use prevenir-se or tomar cuidado instead.

É melhor se prevenir contra fraudes online.

It's better to protect yourself against online fraud. (workaround for precaver-se)

reaver — to recover, get back

Defective in any form that would need the irregular eu of haver (it derives from re- + haver). So eu reavejo does not exist; you say eu recupero or eu consigo reaver (using the infinitive, which is fine).

Quero recuperar o dinheiro que emprestei.

I want to get back the money I lent. (workaround for reaver)

Conseguimos reaver os documentos perdidos.

We managed to recover the lost documents. (infinitive after conseguir — safe)

The golden rule: rephrase, don't invent

The unifying strategy across every defective verb is the same. When you reach a missing cell:

Use the infinitive after a helper verb (conseguir, querer, ir, poder, tentar). The infinitive of a defective verb is always available, and a periphrasis sidesteps the gap entirely.
Swap in a synonym that is fully conjugated (pintar for colorir, eliminar for abolir, prevenir-se for precaver-se).
Shift the subject to third person if the meaning allows it — many gaps are only in the eu form.

💡

If you ever feel tempted to "fix" a defective verb by inventing the missing form, stop. A made-up form like eu colore or eu reavejo immediately marks you as a non-native and may not even be understood. The workaround is not a crutch — it is what fluent speakers genuinely do.

Common Mistakes

❌ Eu colore o desenho.

Incorrect — colorir has no eu present form; invent nothing.

✅ Eu pinto o desenho.

I color/paint the drawing.

❌ Eu reavejo meus documentos.

Incorrect — reaver is defective; this eu form doesn't exist.

✅ Eu recupero meus documentos.

I get my documents back.

❌ Eu me precavejo contra problemas.

Incorrect — precaver-se has no such eu form, and it doesn't contain 'ver'.

✅ Eu me previno contra problemas.

I take precautions against problems.

❌ Que eu abola essa regra.

Incorrect — abolir lacks a present subjunctive; rephrase.

✅ Quero eliminar essa regra.

I want to eliminate this rule.

❌ Eu falo da empresa.

Incorrect mixing — 'falo' is from falar (to speak); falir has no eu present at all.

✅ A empresa está prestes a falir.

The company is about to go bankrupt.

Key Takeaways

Defective verbs are missing specific cells — most often the eu present and the present subjunctive.
The two causes are phonetic awkwardness and naturally limited (often third-person-only) meaning.
Native speakers never invent missing forms; they rephrase with the infinitive or a synonym.
These verbs are rare in speech but common in writing — prioritize recognizing them.
For the grammatical theory behind defectiveness, see the defective verbs page.

Now practice Portuguese

Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.

Start learning Portuguese→