In the pretérito imperfeito, the -er and -ir verbs do something convenient: they collapse into a single set of endings. Where the present tense keeps them apart (come vs. parte), the imperfeito treats them identically. Learn one paradigm and you have conjugated both conjugation classes at once.
One set of endings for two classes
Drop -er or -ir from the infinitive and add the same endings to both:
| Subject | Ending |
|---|---|
| eu | -ia |
| tu (regional) | -ias |
| você / ele / ela | -ia |
| nós | -íamos |
| vocês / eles / elas | -iam |
The tu form (-ias) is regional. Most Brazilians use você, which shares the ele/ela ending.
Comer (-er) and partir (-ir) side by side
| Subject | comer (to eat) | partir (to leave) |
|---|---|---|
| eu | comia | partia |
| tu (regional) | comias | partias |
| você / ele / ela | comia | partia |
| nós | comíamos | partíamos |
| vocês / eles / elas | comiam | partiam |
The two columns are structurally identical — only the stem differs. This is unlike the present tense, where you must remember that comer gives come but partir gives parte. In the imperfeito, there is nothing to remember: both are just stem + -ia.
Quando criança, eu comia feijão com arroz todo santo dia.
As a child, I ate rice and beans every single day.
O trem partia às seis em ponto, então a gente acordava cedo.
The train used to leave at six on the dot, so we'd wake up early.
The identical 1sg / 3sg trap (again)
Just like the -ar verbs, the imperfeito makes eu and ele/ela identical: eu comia = ele comia. This is the only indicative tense where that happens, and it means subject pronouns become far more important — often effectively obligatory — to keep the subject clear.
Eu escrevia cartas e ele escrevia e-mails — coisas de gerações diferentes.
I used to write letters and he used to write emails — things from different generations.
Without eu and ele, escrevia... escrevia would leave the listener guessing who did what.
The accent on -íamos
The nós form carries an obligatory acute accent on the í: -íamos. Comíamos, partíamos, vivíamos. The accent marks the stress (co-MÍ-a-mos) and breaks the vowels into separate syllables. Dropping it is a spelling error.
Nós vivíamos numa cidade pequena, onde todo mundo se conhecia.
We used to live in a small town, where everyone knew each other.
A gente decidia tudo junto, sem brigar.
We used to decide everything together, without fighting.
(Note that a gente, though it means "we," is grammatically third-person singular, so it takes decidia, not decidíamos.)
More common -er and -ir verbs
| Infinitive | eu / ele / ela | nós | vocês / eles |
|---|---|---|---|
| beber (to drink) | bebia | bebíamos | bebiam |
| escrever (to write) | escrevia | escrevíamos | escreviam |
| viver (to live) | vivia | vivíamos | viviam |
| abrir (to open) | abria | abríamos | abriam |
| decidir (to decide) | decidia | decidíamos | decidiam |
| dormir (to sleep) | dormia | dormíamos | dormiam |
| sentir (to feel) | sentia | sentíamos | sentiam |
Quando eu trabalhava à noite, eu dormia o dia inteiro.
When I worked at night, I used to sleep the whole day.
A loja abria às nove, mas a gente chegava sempre atrasado.
The store used to open at nine, but we always arrived late.
Notice that dormir and sentir are stem-changing in the present (durmo, sinto) but completely regular in the imperfeito (dormia, sentia). Stem changes do not happen in the imperfeito — another reason it is the friendliest tense.
Watch out: the imperfeito vs. the conditional
Here is the trap most likely to confuse an intermediate learner. The conditional ("would") also uses an -ia family of endings, attached to the whole infinitive:
- Imperfeito: vivia (stem viv-
- -ia) → "I used to live / was living"
- Conditional: viveria (infinitive viver
- -ia) → "I would live"
They look similar because both end in -ia, but they attach to different bases. The conditional keeps the full infinitive in front of the ending; the imperfeito drops the -er/-ir first.
Eu vivia bem com pouco dinheiro.
I lived (used to live) well on little money. — imperfeito
Eu viveria bem com pouco dinheiro.
I would live well on little money. — conditional
Context almost always disambiguates them in real sentences, but the morphological resemblance is a genuine source of error when producing the language, so the test above is worth internalizing.
Common Mistakes
❌ Nós comiamos juntos todo domingo.
Incorrect — missing the mandatory acute accent on the nós form.
✅ Nós comíamos juntos todo domingo.
We used to eat together every Sunday.
❌ Quando eu era criança, eu viveria na fazenda.
Incorrect — uses the conditional 'would live' where the past-habitual imperfeito is needed.
✅ Quando eu era criança, eu vivia na fazenda.
When I was a child, I lived on the farm.
❌ Ele partia o pão e eu comia, mas você sabia o que comia? (sem pronomes nada claro)
Confusing — without clear pronouns, identical 1sg/3sg forms blur who is eating.
✅ Ele partia o pão e eu comia em silêncio.
He would break the bread and I would eat in silence.
❌ A gente dormíamos até tarde nos fins de semana.
Incorrect — 'a gente' is grammatically third-person singular, so it takes 'dormia', not 'dormíamos'.
✅ A gente dormia até tarde nos fins de semana.
We used to sleep in late on weekends.
Key Takeaways
- -er and -ir verbs share one imperfeito paradigm: stem + -ia / -íamos / -iam.
- eu and ele/ela forms are identical — keep your subject pronouns.
- The nós form always carries the acute accent: -íamos.
- Distinguish the imperfeito (viv·ia) from the conditional (viver·ia) by checking whether the full infinitive survives in front of the ending.
- Stem-changing present-tense verbs like dormir and sentir are perfectly regular here.
Now practice Portuguese
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Start learning Portuguese→Related Topics
- Pretérito Imperfeito OverviewA2 — An introduction to the pretérito imperfeito — Brazilian Portuguese's tense for ongoing, habitual, and background past events.
- Imperfeito: Regular -ar VerbsA2 — How to conjugate regular -ar verbs in the pretérito imperfeito, including the identical 1sg and 3sg forms.
- Imperfeito of SerA2 — How to conjugate ser (era) in the pretérito imperfeito — the only fully suppletive imperfeito verb in Brazilian Portuguese.
- Imperfeito for Ongoing Past ActionA2 — Using the imperfect for actions that were in progress in the past — the equivalent of the English past progressive.
- Pretérito Perfeito: Regular -er VerbsA1 — How to conjugate regular -er verbs in the Brazilian Portuguese preterite, plus a heads-up about the many high-frequency -er verbs that are irregular.