Present Indicative: Regular -er Verbs

The -er class is the second of Brazilian Portuguese's three conjugations. The good news: the regular pattern is just the -ar pattern with the a vowels swapped for e. The catch: many of the most common verbs that end in -er are irregular, which can make the class look harder than it is. The trick is to trust the regular pattern for regular verbs and learn the irregular ones separately.

How it works

Drop the -er from the infinitive to get the stem, then add the matching ending. Using comer (to eat) as our model, the stem is com-:

And as with -ar, the tu form (comes, ending -es) is regional — standard in parts of the Northeast and Rio Grande do Sul, often replaced by tu come in casual speech elsewhere. There is no vós in Brazilian Portuguese.

This is about as canonical a Brazilian sentence as exists — arroz e feijão is the daily staple, and como is the textbook-perfect regular -er eu form.

Notice again that a gente ("we," informal) takes the singular come, never comemos.

The parallel with -ar

Lining the two classes up shows how little there is to learn once you know -ar:

The eu form is the same (-o) in both classes. Everywhere else, simply read e where -ar has a. If you've internalized -ar, you've nearly finished -er for free.

Common regular -er verbs

These all follow comer exactly:

One small note on conhecer: its eu form is conheço — that's a spelling change (c → ç before o to keep the /s/ sound), not an irregularity. The other forms (conhece, conhecemos, conhecem) are perfectly regular.

The catch: the famous -er verbs are irregular

Here is the thing that makes the class feel deceptive. Some of the highest-frequency verbs in the entire language end in -er but do not follow comer's pattern:

These each have their own dedicated page: ser and ter, among others. Don't try to bend them into comer's mold — they won't go.

Where -er differs from -ir

Once you know the -er endings, the third class, -ir, costs you almost nothing — the two are nearly identical in the present indicative. The only difference is the nós form: -er has -emos (comemos), while -ir has -imos (partimos, "we leave"). Everywhere else the endings match.

So the nós slot is the single place where you must keep -er and -ir apart in the present. See the regular -ir verbs page for the full treatment.

Using -er verbs in context

Like all present-tense verbs, regular -er verbs cover habits, current situations, and actions in progress without needing a separate progressive form. A single form like escrevo can mean "I write," "I do write," or "I'm writing."

The second sentence is an action in progress, yet the plain present — not estou escrevendo — is the natural Brazilian choice. Reach for the gerund only when you want to stress the action is underway right this second.

Questions and negatives

Just like -ar verbs: no auxiliary, intonation makes the question, não before the verb makes the negative.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Endings: -o, -e, -emos, -em (with regional -es for tu; no vós).
• The pattern is the -ar pattern with e instead of a — only the eu form (-o) is shared.
• A gente takes the singular -e form, never -emos.
• The flashiest -er verbs (ser, ter, fazer, querer, poder, ver) are irregular and learned individually — but the regular pattern itself is dependable.