Morrer means to die. In its endings it's a regular -er verb, but it has one important irregularity that every learner must lock in: its past participle is morto, not "morrido." That single irregular form does a lot of work — it's the adjective in "Ele está morto" (*He's dead), and it's shared with the verb matar (to kill). Add to that the cluster of high-frequency idioms (morrer de rir, morrer de fome, morrer de saudade) and morrer turns out to be one of the most expressive everyday verbs in Brazilian Portuguese.
Regular endings, irregular participle
The present, preterite, imperfect, future, conditional, and subjunctive are all formed with regular -er endings on the stem morr-. Only the participle breaks the pattern: morto.
Present indicative (presente do indicativo)
| Pronoun | Form |
|---|---|
| eu | morro |
| tu/você | morre |
| ele/ela | morre |
| nós | morremos |
| vocês | morrem |
| eles/elas | morrem |
Eu morro de medo de barata, não consigo nem chegar perto.
I'm scared to death of cockroaches; I can't even get near one.
Toda planta que eu compro morre em uma semana.
Every plant I buy dies within a week.
Note the double rr, which in Brazil is pronounced like an English "h" (or a soft guttural): mo-ho. Don't drop a letter to a single r — that would be a different word.
Preterite (pretérito perfeito)
| Pronoun | Form |
|---|---|
| eu | morri |
| tu/você | morreu |
| ele/ela | morreu |
| nós | morremos |
| vocês | morreram |
| eles/elas | morreram |
Meu avô morreu no ano passado, aos noventa e dois anos.
My grandfather died last year, at ninety-two.
Eu morri de rir com o vídeo que você mandou.
I died laughing at the video you sent.
Imperfect (pretérito imperfeito)
| Pronoun | Form |
|---|---|
| eu | morria |
| tu/você | morria |
| ele/ela | morria |
| nós | morríamos |
| vocês | morriam |
| eles/elas | morriam |
No interior, antigamente, muita gente morria de doenças que hoje têm cura.
In the countryside, in the old days, many people died of diseases that are curable today.
Future and conditional
| Pronoun | Futuro do presente | Futuro do pretérito (conditional) |
|---|---|---|
| eu | morrerei | morreria |
| tu/você | morrerá | morreria |
| ele/ela | morrerá | morreria |
| nós | morreremos | morreríamos |
| vocês | morrerão | morreriam |
| eles/elas | morrerão | morreriam |
Sem água, a plantação morreria em poucos dias.
Without water, the crop would die in a few days.
Subjunctive
| Pronoun | Presente do subjuntivo | Imperfeito do subjuntivo | Futuro do subjuntivo |
|---|---|---|---|
| eu | morra | morresse | morrer |
| tu/você | morra | morresse | morrer |
| ele/ela | morra | morresse | morrer |
| nós | morramos | morrêssemos | morrermos |
| vocês | morram | morressem | morrerem |
| eles/elas | morram | morressem | morrerem |
Tomara que ninguém morra nessa enchente.
I hope nobody dies in this flood.
Imperative
| Pronoun | Affirmative | Negative |
|---|---|---|
| tu | morre | não morras |
| você | morra | não morra |
| nós | morramos | não morramos |
| vocês | morram | não morram |
The imperative is most common as a dramatic exclamation: "Ai, morra de inveja!" (Ugh, eat your heart out!, lit. die of envy).
Non-finite forms — note the participle
| Form | Value |
|---|---|
| Infinitivo | morrer |
| Infinitivo pessoal (nós) | morrermos |
| Infinitivo pessoal (vocês/eles) | morrerem |
| Gerúndio | morrendo |
| Particípio | morto (irregular) |
The participle: morto vs. morrido
Morrer is an abundant verb — it has two participles, and the choice between them follows the same auxiliary-based split as other Portuguese double participles. Here is the practical state of things:
- As an adjective and with ser/estar: always the short morto/morta/mortos/mortas (it agrees in gender and number). Ele está morto. As plantas estão mortas.
- In compound tenses (ter/haver + participle): the regular morrido is the standard form — Ele tinha morrido, quando cheguei, ele já havia morrido. This is the form prescriptive grammar requires after ter/haver, parallel to tinha limpado (not tinha limpo). Avoid tinha morto — that mixes the short, state-flavored participle into a verbal tense where it doesn't belong.
- With matar in the passive: morto is also the participle of matar — Ele foi morto a tiros (He was shot dead). Here it can't be "morrido" at all.
O peixe já estava morto quando chegou no aquário.
The fish was already dead when it arrived in the tank.
Naquela época, muita gente já tinha morrido e ninguém sabia.
By then, many people had already died and nobody knew.
Dois suspeitos foram mortos durante a operação policial.
Two suspects were killed during the police operation.
The "morrer de" idioms
This is where morrer earns its place in everyday conversation. Morrer de + noun/infinitive is a hyperbolic way to express an intense feeling — exactly like English I'm dying of... or I could die of....
- morrer de rir — to die laughing
- morrer de fome — to be starving (lit. die of hunger)
- morrer de sede — to be parched
- morrer de medo — to be scared to death
- morrer de saudade — to miss someone terribly (the untranslatable saudade)
- morrer de vergonha — to be dying of embarrassment
Tô morrendo de fome, vamos comer logo?
I'm starving — can we eat soon?
Ela morre de saudade da família que ficou no Nordeste.
She misses the family that stayed in the Northeast terribly.
Common Mistakes
❌ Ele está morrido.
Incorrect — the adjective/participle is 'morto', not 'morrido'.
✅ Ele está morto.
He's dead.
❌ As flores estão mortos.
Incorrect — 'morto' agrees in gender/number; flores is feminine plural.
✅ As flores estão mortas.
The flowers are dead.
❌ Eu morro de fome agora.
Awkward — use the gerund for the right-now feeling: 'tô morrendo de fome'.
✅ Tô morrendo de fome agora.
I'm starving right now.
❌ Meu cachorro morreu de saudades de você (about a person who left).
Fine grammatically, but note: to miss someone is 'morrer de saudade', a fixed idiom — keep the 'de'.
✅ Meu cachorro morre de saudade de você quando você viaja.
My dog misses you terribly when you travel.
Two things to never forget: the participle is morto (agreeing in gender and number when it's an adjective), and morrer de is your gateway to sounding natural and expressive in everyday Brazilian speech.
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