Present Indicative of Pôr | Portuguese (Brazil) Grammar

Pôr (to put, to place) is a one-of-a-kind verb. It is the only Brazilian Portuguese verb whose infinitive ends in -or, which means it belongs to no regular class at all — it is its own little conjugation. It is also one of the very few words in the language where an accent mark carries the entire meaning: pôr (the verb) versus por (the preposition "by/through"). Learn the paradigm and that one accent, and you also unlock a whole family of common compounds.

The conjugation

Subject	Form
eu	ponho
você / ele / ela	põe
nós	pomos
vocês / eles / elas	põem

(The tu form, pões, is regional, as always. No vós in Brazil.)

There are three things to absorb here:

eu = ponho. The stem grows an -nh- out of nowhere — the same nasal palatal you hear in tenho (ter) and venho (vir). This is the eu-form irregularity, right on schedule.
The singular você form is põe — with a tilde, marking a nasal diphthong. It does not end in -e like an -er verb would.
The plural is põem — also nasal, with the tilde kept.

Eu ponho açúcar no café, e você?

I put sugar in my coffee — how about you?

Ela põe as crianças para dormir às oito.

She puts the kids to bed at eight.

Eles põem a culpa sempre nos outros.

They always put the blame on others.

"An honorary -er" — and where the analogy breaks

A useful first approximation: pretend pôr is an -er verb whose stem is po-. That gets you surprisingly far for the eu and nós forms — ponho parallels tenho/venho, and pomos looks just like comemos with the stem trimmed.

But the analogy collapses in the singular and plural of the third person. A regular -er verb gives -e / -em (come / comem). Pôr gives the nasal endings -õe / -õem (põe / põem), which no other verb in the language uses. So:

Subject	Regular -er (comer)	pôr
você/ele/ela	come	põe
vocês/eles/elas	comem	põem

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Treating pôr as an honorary -er almost works — but those nasal endings -õe and -õem are unique to pôr and its compounds. Don't expect to find them anywhere else in the language.

The accent that means everything: pôr vs. por

Brazilian Portuguese spelling reform stripped accents off most words that didn't strictly need them. Pôr kept its circumflex on purpose — it is one of a tiny set of acentos diferenciais (differential accents) preserved specifically to separate two otherwise-identical words.

Word	What it is	Meaning
pôr	verb (infinitive)	to put, to place
por	preposition	by, through, for, per

Without the hat, por is the everyday preposition you meet in por favor, por isso, passar por aqui. With the hat, pôr is the action of placing something. The circumflex is the only signal in writing — in speech, context does the work.

Vou pôr a mesa antes de eles chegarem.

I'm going to set the table before they arrive. (verb — accent)

Eu passo por aqui todo dia no caminho do trabalho.

I come by here every day on the way to work. (preposition — no accent)

Onde eu ponho isso? — Pode pôr ali, perto da janela.

Where do I put this? — You can put it over there, near the window.

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The accent appears only on the infinitive pôr. Once the verb is conjugated, the contrast is gone — ponho, põe, pomos, põem are never confusable with the preposition, so no differential accent is needed. (The tilde on põe/põem is a separate matter: it marks nasality, not the verb-vs-preposition distinction.)

For the preposition itself and its tricky partner para, see por vs. para.

The compound family: free conjugations

Here is the payoff. A whole set of common verbs are built by prefixing pôr, and every single one conjugates exactly like it — same -nho eu form, same nasal -õe / -õem. Learn pôr and you learn all of these at once.

Verb	Meaning	eu form	ele/ela form
compor	to compose	componho	compõe
supor	to suppose	suponho	supõe
opor	to oppose	oponho	opõe
expor	to expose, to exhibit	exponho	expõe
propor	to propose	proponho	propõe
repor	to replace, to restock	reponho	repõe
depor	to testify; to depose	deponho	depõe

Notice that the compounds drop the circumflex on the infinitive — it's compor, supor, propor, not compôr. The accent was only ever there to disambiguate the bare verb pôr from the preposition por; the compounds have no such clash, so they need no hat.

Eu proponho a gente dividir a conta.

I propose we split the bill.

Ela compõe as próprias músicas.

She composes her own songs.

O supermercado repõe os produtos toda manhã.

The supermarket restocks the products every morning.

Eles se opõem a qualquer mudança.

They oppose any change.

Common Mistakes

❌ Eu pono o casaco no armário.

Incorrect — the eu form grows -nh-: ponho, not 'pono'.

✅ Eu ponho o casaco no armário.

I put my coat in the closet.

❌ Ela pôe a mesa toda noite.

Incorrect — the conjugated form takes a tilde (nasal), not a circumflex: põe.

✅ Ela põe a mesa toda noite.

She sets the table every night.

❌ Vou por a mesa agora.

Incorrect — the verb 'to put' needs the circumflex: pôr (here it reads as the preposition 'por').

✅ Vou pôr a mesa agora.

I'm going to set the table now.

❌ Eles pões a culpa em mim.

Incorrect — 'pões' is the regional tu form; the eles form is põem.

✅ Eles põem a culpa em mim.

They put the blame on me.

❌ Eu compono uma música nova.

Incorrect — compor follows pôr exactly: componho.

✅ Eu componho uma música nova.

I'm composing a new song.

Key Takeaways

Pôr is the only -or verb in Brazilian Portuguese — its own class. Forms: ponho, põe, pomos, põem.
The eu form grows -nh- (ponho), like tenho/venho.
The endings -õe / -õem are nasal (tilde) and unique to pôr and its compounds.
The circumflex on the infinitive pôr is a differential accent separating the verb from the preposition por. Conjugated forms don't need it.
Compounds (compor, supor, propor, expor, repor, opor, depor) conjugate identically — and have no circumflex on the infinitive.

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