The regular past participle is one of the rare corners of Portuguese grammar with no surprises at all. There are exactly two endings, they map cleanly onto the three verb classes, and once you know which class a verb belongs to, you can produce its participle automatically — without ever having seen it before.
The two endings
| Class | Drop | Add | Example | Participle |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| -ar | -ar | -ado | falar | falado |
| -er | -er | -ido | comer | comido |
| -ir | -ir | -ido | partir | partido |
Note that -er and -ir verbs share the same ending, -ido. So the whole system reduces to a single binary choice: is the verb -ar (→ -ado) or not (→ -ido)? That's it.
-ar verbs → -ado
Take the infinitive, chop off -ar, add -ado.
| Infinitive | Meaning | Participle |
|---|---|---|
| falar | to speak | falado |
| comprar | to buy | comprado |
| trabalhar | to work | trabalhado |
| morar | to live | morado |
| estudar | to study | estudado |
| fechar | to close | fechado |
| chegar | to arrive | chegado |
Eu nunca tinha falado em público antes daquele dia.
I had never spoken in public before that day.
A gente tem trabalhado muito esse mês.
We've been working a lot this month.
O contrato foi assinado e enviado ontem.
The contract was signed and sent yesterday.
-er and -ir verbs → -ido
Chop off -er or -ir, add -ido. Both classes behave identically.
| Infinitive | Meaning | Participle |
|---|---|---|
| comer | to eat | comido |
| beber | to drink | bebido |
| vender | to sell | vendido |
| conhecer | to know, meet | conhecido |
| partir | to leave, split | partido |
| decidir | to decide | decidido |
| dormir | to sleep | dormido |
| sentir | to feel | sentido |
Você já tinha bebido café da manhã quando ele ligou?
Had you already had breakfast when he called?
O apartamento já foi vendido, infelizmente.
The apartment has already been sold, unfortunately.
Tenho dormido mal por causa do barulho da obra.
I've been sleeping badly because of the noise from the construction.
Pronunciation
Both endings are perfectly regular in sound, and knowing this stops you from over-thinking spelling. The final o of a participle is an unstressed vowel, pronounced like a soft "oo":
- -ado → /ˈa.du/ — stress on the a, the final o reduced to "oo": fa-LA-doo.
- -ido → /ˈi.du/ — stress on the i, final o reduced: co-MEE-doo.
In fast, casual Brazilian speech you'll often hear the d of -ado swallowed almost entirely — falado can sound like fala'o, cansado like cansa'o. This is (informal) pronunciation; the d is always written, and you should pronounce it in careful or (formal) speech.
The four agreement forms
When a participle is used in the passive voice or as an adjective, it agrees in gender and number — exactly like any adjective ending in -o. That gives every regular participle four forms:
| Masculine | Feminine | |
|---|---|---|
| Singular | falado | falada |
| Plural | falados | faladas |
O problema foi resolvido em poucos minutos.
The problem was solved in a few minutes. (resolvido — masc. sing.)
A questão foi resolvida pela diretoria.
The matter was resolved by the board. (resolvida — fem. sing.)
Os carros estavam estacionados na calçada.
The cars were parked on the sidewalk. (estacionados — masc. plural)
Remember the cardinal rule from the overview: after ter the participle does not change — it stays -ado / -ido. Agreement only kicks in for the passive and adjectival uses, covered fully on agreement rules and past participle as adjective.
Why "regular" really means regular here
Compare this with the present tense, where -er and -ir verbs diverge (comemos vs. partimos), or the preterite, where each class has its own vowel. The participle collapses that complexity: -er and -ir verbs are identical, and -ar verbs differ only by one vowel. English has no comparable predictability — English participles are riddled with irregulars (go → gone, write → written, eat → eaten), and even regular ones can sound different (walked vs. wanted). In Portuguese, the regular participle is the calm, dependable center of the system.
Common Mistakes
❌ Eu tenho comedo muito ultimamente.
Incorrect — comer is -er, so the ending is -ido, not -edo.
✅ Eu tenho comido muito ultimamente.
I've been eating a lot lately.
❌ A casa foi vendado no mês passado.
Incorrect — vender is -er → vendido; vendado would mean 'blindfolded'.
✅ A casa foi vendida no mês passado.
The house was sold last month.
❌ As portas foram fechado.
Incorrect — in the passive the participle must agree: portas is fem. plural → fechadas.
✅ As portas foram fechadas.
The doors were closed.
❌ Ela tinha comprada o presente.
Incorrect — after ter the participle is invariable: comprado, not comprada.
✅ Ela tinha comprado o presente.
She had bought the gift.
❌ Nós temos partidos cedo todos os dias.
Incorrect — after ter the participle never takes a plural; it stays partido.
✅ Nós temos partido cedo todos os dias.
We've been leaving early every day.
Key Takeaways
- -ar → -ado, -er/-ir → -ido. One binary choice covers every regular verb.
- The endings are phonetically predictable; the casually dropped d in speech is never reflected in spelling.
- For passive and adjectival use, the participle has four agreeing forms (-o, -a, -os, -as).
- After ter, it freezes in the base -ado / -ido form.
Now practice Portuguese
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Start learning Portuguese→Related Topics
- The Past Participle in BR PortugueseA2 — What the past participle (particípio passado) is, how it's formed, and its three jobs — compound tenses, passive voice, and adjective — including the crucial rule that it agrees in passive and adjectival use but not after ter.
- Irregular Past ParticiplesA2 — The high-frequency Brazilian Portuguese verbs whose past participles don't follow the -ado/-ido pattern — visto, feito, dito, escrito, posto, aberto, vindo, ganho — plus the verbs that have both a regular and irregular form.
- Past Participle as AdjectiveA2 — How Brazilian Portuguese past participles work as adjectives — agreeing in gender and number with the noun they describe — and how recognizing them as participles expands your vocabulary.
- Past Participle Agreement RulesB1 — When Portuguese past participles agree in gender and number with a noun, and the one case where they never do.
- The Three Conjugation Classes (-ar, -er, -ir)A1 — How Brazilian Portuguese sorts every verb into three classes by infinitive ending, and what that tells you about its conjugation.
- Forming the Pretérito Perfeito CompostoA2 — How to build the Brazilian present perfect: present-tense 'ter' plus an invariant past participle that never agrees with the subject.