A mood (modo) is the grammatical category that tells you how the speaker relates to what they are saying — whether they are stating a fact, expressing a wish or doubt, or giving a command. Portuguese has three finite moods: the indicative (indicativo), the subjunctive (subjuntivo), and the imperative (imperativo). The single most important thing for an English speaker to absorb on this page is that the subjunctive — which has all but vanished from English — is a living, frequent, and non-negotiable part of everyday Brazilian Portuguese.
The indicative — the mood of facts
The indicative is the default mood. You use it to state things you present as real, factual, or certain: what happened, what is happening, what will happen. Almost everything you say in the early stages of learning is in the indicative.
Eu falo português todos os dias.
I speak Portuguese every day.
Ela trabalhou até tarde ontem.
She worked late yesterday.
Amanhã vai chover na cidade toda.
Tomorrow it's going to rain across the whole city.
If you are describing reality as you see it, you are in the indicative. It is the mood of news reports, of narration, of plain statements of fact.
The subjunctive — the mood of the unreal
The subjunctive marks actions that are not presented as facts: wishes, doubts, emotions, hypotheticals, possibilities, things that have not happened yet and might not. It is the grammatical home of everything that lives in the realm of the imagined rather than the established.
Espero que você fale com ela hoje.
I hope you talk to her today.
Here, fale is subjunctive because you are expressing a hope about an action that has not occurred — it exists only as something you want to become true. Compare this with the indicative você fala ("you speak / you talk"), which simply reports a fact. The difference between fala and fale is the difference between asserting reality and projecting a wish onto it.
Why this matters so much for English speakers
English used to have a full subjunctive, but it has eroded to a few fossilized traces: if I *were you, I insist that he **be present, God **save the Queen. Most English speakers use these without even realizing a distinct mood is involved, and many native speakers replace them with the indicative (if I **was you*) in casual speech. Because of this, English speakers routinely assume the subjunctive is a dusty, literary, optional feature in Portuguese too. It is not.
Brazilian Portuguese uses the subjunctive constantly, across three different tenses, in completely ordinary conversation:
| Subjunctive tense | Example | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| Present (presente) | Quero que você fale mais alto. | I want you to speak louder. |
| Imperfect (imperfeito) | Se eu falasse francês, moraria em Paris. | If I spoke French, I'd live in Paris. |
| Future (futuro) | Quando você falar com ela, me avisa. | When you talk to her, let me know. |
The future subjunctive — alive and obligatory
The future subjunctive deserves special attention because it is genuinely remarkable: it has died out in almost every other Romance language (Spanish, French, and Italian have lost it entirely), yet it is fully alive and obligatory in Brazilian Portuguese. You cannot avoid it. It is required after certain conjunctions — quando, se, enquanto, assim que, logo que — whenever the action refers to the future.
Quando eu chegar em casa, te ligo.
When I get home, I'll call you.
Se você precisar de qualquer coisa, é só falar.
If you need anything, just say so.
Assim que o filme acabar, a gente vai embora.
As soon as the movie ends, we'll leave.
Notice that English uses the present tense after "when" and "if" for future events ("when I get home," not "when I will get home"). Portuguese instead uses a dedicated future subjunctive form — chegar, precisar, acabar — which for regular verbs happens to look like the infinitive but is a real conjugated form. This is one of the trickiest features of the whole verb system, and it gets a full treatment on the future subjunctive page.
The imperative — the mood of commands
The imperative is used to give orders, make requests, offer instructions, and give advice. It exists only in the "you" persons (and a "let's" form), because you cannot command yourself or a third party directly.
Fale com ele antes de tomar qualquer decisão.
Talk to him before making any decision.
Fecha a porta, por favor — tá entrando vento.
Close the door, please — there's a draft coming in.
Não esquece de comprar o pão na volta.
Don't forget to buy bread on the way back.
In Brazilian Portuguese, the affirmative command for você is borrowed directly from the present subjunctive (fale!, coma!, abra!), which is one reason the two moods feel so intertwined. In everyday speech, however, Brazilians very often use the indicative-looking tu form for commands regardless of region (fecha a porta, fala comigo) — a colloquial pattern covered in detail on the imperative overview page.
A quick mention: the personal infinitive
Portuguese also has a feature with no direct English equivalent — the personal infinitive, an infinitive that carries person endings (falarmos, falarem). It is not a mood, but it often does the job the subjunctive does in other languages, which is why it is worth flagging here.
É melhor vocês falarem com o gerente.
It's better for you all to speak with the manager.
The personal infinitive has its own section starting at the personal infinitive overview.
One sentence, three moods
To feel the contrast, watch the verb falar shift across the three moods:
Eu falo com o chefe amanhã.
I'm speaking with the boss tomorrow. (indicative — stated as fact)
Ele quer que eu fale com o chefe amanhã.
He wants me to speak with the boss tomorrow. (subjunctive — a wish, not yet a fact)
Fale com o chefe amanhã!
Speak with the boss tomorrow! (imperative — a command)
Common mistakes
❌ Quero que você fala mais devagar.
Incorrect — 'quero que' expresses a wish, so the verb must be subjunctive: fale.
✅ Quero que você fale mais devagar.
I want you to speak more slowly.
❌ Quando eu chego em casa, te ligo.
Incorrect for a future event — 'quando' + future requires the future subjunctive: chegar.
✅ Quando eu chegar em casa, te ligo.
When I get home, I'll call you.
❌ Se eu seria você, não faria isso.
Incorrect — a hypothetical 'if' clause takes the imperfect subjunctive (fosse), not the conditional.
✅ Se eu fosse você, não faria isso.
If I were you, I wouldn't do that.
❌ Espero que ele tem tempo amanhã.
Incorrect — 'espero que' expresses hope, so the verb must be subjunctive: tenha.
✅ Espero que ele tenha tempo amanhã.
I hope he has time tomorrow.
These are the classic English-speaker errors, and they all stem from the same source: the instinct to use the indicative everywhere because that is what English does. The fix is to listen for the trigger — a wish, a doubt, an emotion, a future "when/if" — and let it pull the verb into the subjunctive.
Key takeaways
- The indicative states facts; the subjunctive marks wishes, doubts, emotions, and hypotheticals; the imperative gives commands.
- Unlike English, Brazilian Portuguese uses the subjunctive constantly, in three tenses: present (fale), imperfect (falasse), and future (falar).
- The future subjunctive is alive and obligatory in Brazilian Portuguese after quando, se, enquanto, assim que for future events — do not dismiss it as literary.
- The affirmative você imperative is borrowed from the present subjunctive, which is why the two moods overlap.
Now practice Portuguese
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Start learning Portuguese→Related Topics
- Tenses at a GlanceA2 — A complete map of Brazilian Portuguese verb tenses — which are alive in everyday speech, which survive only in writing, and which English simply lacks.
- The Subjunctive in BR Portuguese: OverviewA2 — What the subjunctive is, why Brazilian Portuguese keeps all three of its tenses fully alive, and what triggers it.
- When to Use the Subjunctive: Decision GuideA2 — A clean, category-by-category guide to the verbs, expressions, and conjunctions that trigger the subjunctive in Brazilian Portuguese.
- Futuro do Subjuntivo: UsageA2 — When to use the future subjunctive in Brazilian Portuguese — the obligatory form after 'quando', 'se', 'enquanto', 'assim que' and other time conjunctions pointing to the future.
- The Imperative in BR PortugueseA2 — How Brazilian Portuguese gives commands, requests, and instructions — the você-form (from the subjunctive), the regional tu-form, the always-subjunctive negative, and the famous tu/você mismatch in real speech.
- The Personal Infinitive: OverviewB1 — Portuguese's signature feature — an infinitive that carries person and number endings, letting infinitive clauses take their own subject.