Verb Frequency List (Top 100) | Portuguese (Brazil) Grammar

This is your master checklist of the 100 most frequent verbs in Brazilian Portuguese. Print it, tick verbs off as you learn them, and use it to set realistic expectations about how far a small vocabulary can take you.

Why a frequency list is worth your time

Vocabulary in natural language follows a steep curve. A handful of words appears constantly; most words almost never appear. Verbs are the extreme case of this, because every sentence needs at least one. In Brazilian Portuguese (BR), the distribution is dramatically skewed: the top 20 verbs alone account for roughly 50% of all verb tokens in everyday speech and writing, and the top 100 cover the overwhelming majority of what you will ever need to express.

The practical takeaway is encouraging. You do not need thousands of verbs to hold a conversation. You need these 100 — really well. Knowing ter (to have) cold is worth more than knowing fifty rare verbs you will use once a year.

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Frequency is the single best ordering principle for a beginner's study plan. Learn verbs in roughly this order and every hour of study buys you the maximum amount of comprehensible input.

A second reason to study from frequency: it tells you where to spend your effort budget. The high-frequency verbs are worth learning in every tense and mood, because you will meet them everywhere. A verb near rank 90 is worth recognizing, but you can safely postpone its subjunctive forms until much later.

Eu tenho dois irmãos e uma irmã mais nova.

I have two brothers and one younger sister.

A gente precisa sair agora, senão vamos perder o ônibus.

We need to leave now, otherwise we'll miss the bus.

The top 100 verbs

Ranks are approximate and drawn from spoken and written BR corpora; small reorderings between sources are normal. The point is the band a verb sits in, not its exact position.

#	Verb	Gloss
1	ser	to be (essence)
2	ter	to have
3	estar	to be (state)
4	fazer	to do, to make
5	ir	to go
6	poder	to be able, can
7	dizer	to say
8	ver	to see
9	dar	to give
10	saber	to know (facts)
11	querer	to want
12	ficar	to stay, to become
13	falar	to speak, to talk
14	achar	to think, to find
15	passar	to pass, to spend (time)
16	dever	to owe, ought to
17	chegar	to arrive
18	deixar	to let, to leave behind
19	encontrar	to find, to meet
20	vir	to come
21	começar	to begin
22	pensar	to think
23	conseguir	to manage, be able to
24	colocar	to put, to place
25	levar	to take, to carry
26	precisar	to need
27	existir	to exist
28	tomar	to take, to drink
29	tornar	to make, to render
30	olhar	to look
31	chamar	to call, to be named
32	perder	to lose, to miss
33	pôr	to put
34	entender	to understand
35	tratar	to treat, to deal with
36	esperar	to wait, to hope
37	receber	to receive
38	sair	to go out, to leave
39	continuar	to continue
40	trabalhar	to work
41	voltar	to return
42	parecer	to seem
43	apresentar	to present, to introduce
44	considerar	to consider
45	permitir	to allow
46	conhecer	to know (people, places)
47	pegar	to grab, to catch
48	mostrar	to show
49	contar	to tell, to count
50	gostar	to like
51	acabar	to finish, to end up
52	entrar	to enter
53	lembrar	to remember
54	morar	to live, to reside
55	buscar	to seek, to fetch
56	usar	to use
57	ajudar	to help
58	aparecer	to appear
59	servir	to serve
60	realizar	to carry out, to achieve
61	seguir	to follow
62	criar	to create, to raise
63	abrir	to open
64	perguntar	to ask (a question)
65	permanecer	to remain
66	viver	to live (be alive)
67	sentir	to feel
68	vender	to sell
69	comprar	to buy
70	pedir	to ask for, to order
71	partir	to leave, to depart
72	escrever	to write
73	ler	to read
74	comer	to eat
75	jogar	to play, to throw
76	correr	to run
77	aprender	to learn
78	estudar	to study
79	acreditar	to believe
80	decidir	to decide
81	terminar	to finish, to end
82	responder	to answer
83	aceitar	to accept
84	mudar	to change
85	pagar	to pay
86	ganhar	to win, to earn
87	parar	to stop
88	esquecer	to forget
89	andar	to walk
90	cair	to fall
91	ouvir	to hear
92	escolher	to choose
93	trazer	to bring
94	nascer	to be born
95	morrer	to die
96	dormir	to sleep
97	preferir	to prefer
98	cuidar	to take care
99	matar	to kill
100	repetir	to repeat

Você pode repetir, por favor? Não entendi.

Can you repeat that, please? I didn't catch it.

Eu nasci em Salvador, mas cresci em São Paulo.

I was born in Salvador, but I grew up in São Paulo.

Eles decidiram mudar de cidade no ano passado.

They decided to move cities last year.

What the curve looks like

Notice how the meanings spread out as you go down the list. The top 20 are dominated by grammatical workhorses — verbs of being, having, going, saying — that combine with everything. By the time you reach the 60s and 70s, you hit concrete content verbs like comprar (to buy), comer (to eat), and escrever (to write). This is the natural shape of frequency: abstract, high-combinability verbs at the top, specific lexical verbs filling in below.

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Many verbs in the 40-100 band are near-perfect cognates of English -ate / -ate-style Latin verbs: considerar, permitir, criar, decidir, aceitar, responder. If you read English, you already half-know them. See the English cognate verbs page to harvest these quickly.

Common Mistakes

The mistakes here are about how you use a frequency list, not just about conjugation.

❌ Studying rare verbs first because they 'look interesting'.

Inefficient — you spend effort on verbs you'll rarely meet while the core stays shaky.

✅ Drilling the top 20 in every tense before touching rank-80 verbs.

Efficient — coverage compounds fastest at the top of the curve.

❌ Treating the list as a vocabulary-only task.

Incomplete — knowing the infinitive isn't the same as being able to conjugate it.

✅ Learning each high-frequency verb's eu form and preterite stem.

Complete — the two slots that carry the irregularity.

❌ Eu pago a conta agora? — said as 'eu pajo'.

Incorrect — pagar is spelling-regular: eu pago, not 'pajo'.

✅ Eu pago a conta agora.

Shall I pay the bill now?

❌ Assuming frequency rank equals difficulty.

False — the highest-frequency verbs are usually the most irregular, not the easiest.

✅ Budgeting extra time for top-ranked verbs precisely because they're hard.

Realistic — frequency and irregularity rise together.

Use this list alongside the 50 most common verbs page (which adds sample forms) and the irregular verb groups page (which explains how the hard ones behave).

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Why a frequency list is worth your time

The top 100 verbs

What the curve looks like

Common Mistakes

Now practice Portuguese

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