Rir

Rir means to laugh. It is one of the shortest verbs in the language — the stem is just ri- — and that shortness is exactly what makes it irregular. Because so little is left of the stem, the endings collide directly with the vowel i, producing hiatus forms (rio, riem, rindo) that look strange to English eyes and that even native speakers occasionally misspell. This page gives the full paradigm, flags every trap, and shows the verb in the everyday Brazilian expressions where it really lives.

Why rir is irregular

A normal -ir verb keeps a consonant before its endings (part-ir → parto, parte). Rir has no consonant after the i of its stem, so when an ending also begins with a vowel, two vowels meet and both are pronounced — a hiatus. That is why eu rio has two syllables (ri-o) and eles riem has two (ri-em). There is no logical shortcut to learn here; the forms simply follow from the missing consonant. The good news is that sorrir (to smile) conjugates identically, so learning one teaches you both.

Presente do indicativo

Note the eu form rio (identical in spelling to rio "river" — context disambiguates) and the third-person plural riem, which keeps the i.

Pretérito perfeito

The preterite is mostly regular for an -ir verb, but watch the eu form ri (a single bare syllable) and the third-person singular riu.

Notice that nós rimos is identical in the present and the preterite — only context tells you whether it is "we laugh" or "we laughed." This is true of all -ir verbs.

Pretérito imperfeito

Regular for an -ir verb, with the predictable -ia endings. Use it for repeated or background laughing in the past ("used to laugh," "was laughing").

Futuro do presente & futuro do pretérito (conditional)

Both are built on the full infinitive rir-, so they are completely regular — no hiatus surprises here.

In everyday speech the simple future is replaced by ir + infinitive: vou rir rather than rirei. (informal)

Presente do subjuntivo

Built on the eu form rio minus the -o, giving the stem ri- plus -a endings. The hiatus shows up again throughout: ria, rias, ria, riamos, riam.

Be careful: the present subjunctive ria is spelled identically to the imperfect indicative ria — but they are different tenses. The subjunctive nós form is riamos (no accent), while the imperfect indicative nós form is ríamos (with accent). That accent is the only thing distinguishing them.

Imperfeito & futuro do subjuntivo

The imperfect subjunctive uses -isse; the future subjunctive is built on the preterite stem ri-.

Imperativo

The affirmative tu form (ri) comes from the present indicative; the você/vocês forms come from the subjunctive (ria, riam). The negative forms all use the subjunctive.

Non-finite forms

The gerúndio is rindo — built on the stem ri- plus -ndo, again with the hiatus. The particípio is regular: rido.

Meaning and constructions

The default English equivalent is to laugh, but the prepositions matter.

• rir de = to laugh at / about something or someone. The preposition is de, never a (that is a Spanish pattern: reírse de). Note that rir de alguém can mean laughing at someone in a mocking way, so tone matters.
• rir-se (reflexive) exists but is far more common in European Portuguese. In Brazil the plain rir dominates; rir-se sounds formal or literary. (regional: Brazil prefers non-reflexive)
• morrer de rir = to die laughing, the standard idiom for finding something hilarious. (informal)
• dar risada / cair na gargalhada = to burst out laughing — note these use the noun risada/gargalhada, not the verb rir.

Common Mistakes

English speakers who have studied Spanish tend to import reír patterns, and the bare stem invites spelling slips.

Key Takeaways

• Rir is a short hiatus verb: the missing consonant after the stem creates the two-vowel forms rio, riem, rindo.
• Remember the third-person plural present riem (keeps the i) and the gerúndio rindo — the two most-misspelled forms.
• The construction is rir de (laugh at/about), parallel to English.
• The reflexive rir-se is European Portuguese; Brazilians say plain rir.
• Sorrir (to smile) conjugates exactly the same way, so you get a second verb for free.