Vestir

Vestir means to dress (someone) or to put on / wear (a garment). It belongs to the e→i stem-changing -ir family — the same group as servir, sentir, preferir, and dormir's cousin — where the stem vowel e becomes i in the first-person singular present and throughout the present subjunctive. Everywhere else it behaves like a regular -ir verb. The other thing to master is which clothing verb to use: vestir vs. usar vs. pôr/colocar, and the reflexive vestir-se.

The e→i stem change — and why it happens

The infinitive stem is vest- (vowel e). In the eu present form and across the present subjunctive, that e raises to i, giving visto and vista. This is not random: e→i raising is a phonological pattern in -ir verbs triggered when the stem vowel falls under a particular stress/ending configuration. You don't need the phonetics — you need the rule of thumb: the change appears exactly where the ending begins with the "wrong" vowel for the class (the -o of visto, the -a of the subjunctive), and it spreads through the entire subjunctive because the subjunctive is built from the eu-form stem.

Crucial homograph warning: visto (I dress / I put on, from vestir) is spelled identically to visto (seen, the past participle of ver). They are different words from different verbs; only context disambiguates. We flag this again in the mistakes section.

Presente do indicativo

Only the eu form changes its vowel (vist-). Every other person keeps the original e: veste, vestimos, vestem.

Pretérito perfeito

The preterite is completely regular — no stem change here. Note that vestimos (nós) is identical in present and preterite, the usual -ir overlap.

Pretérito imperfeito

Regular -ir imperfect, with the e intact throughout.

Futuro do presente & futuro do pretérito (conditional)

Both built on the full infinitive vestir-.

In speech the ir + infinitive future dominates: vou vestir. (informal)

Presente do subjuntivo — the change spreads here

This is where e→i reappears across all persons (built from the eu-form stem vist-).

Note vista is also a homograph — it's the past-participle form of ver in feminine ("seen") and the noun a vista ("the view"). Context disambiguates.

Imperfeito & futuro do subjuntivo

Both are regular (no stem change — they are built from the infinitive/preterite stem, which keeps the e).

Imperativo

The affirmative você and negative forms come from the subjunctive, so they carry the e→i change (vista). The affirmative tu comes from the present indicative tu-form (veste), which does not.

Non-finite forms

The participle vestido doubles as the noun "dress" (o vestido) — same word, different category.

Vestir vs. usar vs. pôr/colocar — the clothing-verb decision

English overloads "wear" and "put on"; Portuguese splits the labor, and choosing wrong sounds odd:

• vestir — the act of putting clothes on, especially clothing someone (vestir a criança) or putting on a garment as an action. It's also the natural verb for "what to wear" choices.
• vestir-se (reflexive) — to get dressed (the act of dressing oneself). "Vou me vestir" = "I'm going to get dressed."
• usar — to have on / wear habitually, the ongoing state. "Ela usa óculos" = "She wears glasses." Use usar for the static "is wearing," not vestir.
• pôr / colocar — to put on a specific item right now, very common in speech: "Põe um casaco" / "Coloca um casaco" = "Put on a coat."

So: you vestir (put on) a shirt in the morning, then all day you usar (have on) that shirt; to get yourself dressed you vestir-se.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Vestir is an e→i stem-changing -ir verb: the change hits only the present eu-form (visto) and the whole present subjunctive (vista, vistamos, vistam).
• The preterite, imperfect, and future are all regular with the e intact.
• visto (I dress) is a homograph of visto (seen, from ver); vista overlaps with "view" and "seen (fem.)".
• Action of dressing = vestir / vestir-se; ongoing state of wearing = usar; putting on a specific item = pôr / colocar.