Fazer ("to do / to make") and dizer ("to say / to tell") are two of the busiest verbs in Portuguese, and they happen to be parallel: both end in -zer, and both have irregular preterites that follow a recognizable shape. Fazer gives you fiz / fez / fizeram; dizer gives you disse / disse / disseram. Learn them together and the pattern reinforces itself. They also power two of the most common things you will ever do in conversation: ask what someone did, and report what someone said.
Conjugating fazer
The two singular forms are the wild cards — fiz (eu) and fez (você/ele/ela) — neither of which looks like the infinitive and neither of which carries the usual final -i. From the nós form onward, a regular fiz- stem takes over.
| Subject | Pretérito perfeito |
|---|---|
| eu | fiz |
| tu (regional) | fizeste |
| você / ele / ela | fez |
| nós | fizemos |
| vocês / eles / elas | fizeram |
Fazer for past actions
O que você fez ontem à noite?
What did you do last night?
Eu fiz um bolo de chocolate pro aniversário dela.
I made a chocolate cake for her birthday.
A gente não fez nada o dia inteiro, só descansou.
We didn't do anything all day, just rested.
That first sentence — O que você fez? — is one of the highest-frequency questions in spoken Brazilian Portuguese. Drill it until it is automatic, because you will use it constantly: O que você fez no fim de semana? O que ele fez com o dinheiro? O que vocês fizeram depois?
The time trap: "faz três anos"
Here is a point that surprises English speakers. When fazer expresses elapsed time ("it's been X years / ago"), Brazilian Portuguese keeps it in the present, not the preterite, when the situation still holds:
Faz três anos que eu moro aqui.
I've lived here for three years. (and still do)
Faz tempo que não vejo você!
It's been a while since I've seen you!
The logic: the three years are still accumulating, so the statement is about an ongoing present reality, and faz stays present. You only shift to the preterite fez for a one-off completed action ("he made/did"), not for "it has been." Compare Faz três anos que moro aqui (ongoing) with Ele fez isso ontem (a finished act).
Conjugating dizer
Dizer runs parallel to fazer but with one signature feature: a doubled -ss- running through the whole tense (disse, dissemos, disseram). And note that the eu and the você/ele/ela forms are identical — both are disse. Context tells you who said it.
| Subject | Pretérito perfeito |
|---|---|
| eu | disse |
| tu (regional) | disseste |
| você / ele / ela | disse |
| nós | dissemos |
| vocês / eles / elas | disseram |
Dizer for reported speech
The main job of disse is reporting what someone said:
Ela disse que vinha, mas acho que esqueceu.
She said she was coming, but I think she forgot.
Eu já disse pra ele mil vezes pra não fazer isso.
I've already told him a thousand times not to do that.
Eles disseram que o pacote chega amanhã.
They said the package arrives tomorrow.
In Brazil, dizer in everyday speech usually pairs with pra ("to"): disse pra ele, disse pra mim. The more formal disse-lhe (with the clitic lhe) belongs to writing and (formal) register; in casual conversation it sounds stiff.
Common Mistakes
❌ Eu fazi um bolo ontem.
Incorrect — fazer is irregular; there is no regular 'fazi'.
✅ Eu fiz um bolo ontem.
I made a cake yesterday.
Learners regularize fazer to fazi by analogy with -er verbs like comer → comi. But fazer is strong-irregular: the eu form is fiz.
❌ Fez três anos que eu moro aqui.
Incorrect — for ongoing elapsed time, fazer stays in the present (faz).
✅ Faz três anos que eu moro aqui.
I've lived here for three years.
The action is still going, so the time expression is present: faz, not fez.
❌ Ela disso que vinha.
Incorrect — invented form; the past of dizer is disse, not 'disso'.
✅ Ela disse que vinha.
She said she was coming.
The third-person preterite of dizer is disse (with -ss-); disso is a different word ("of that").
❌ Nós fazemos a lição ontem.
Incorrect — fazemos is present; the past nós form is fizemos.
✅ Nós fizemos a lição ontem.
We did the homework yesterday.
Ontem forces the past; the nós preterite is fizemos, not the present fazemos.
❌ Eu disse para ela vir, e ela fazeu.
Incorrect — 'fazeu' is not a word; the third-person past is fez.
✅ Eu disse para ela vir, e ela fez.
I told her to come, and she did.
Note how Portuguese answers "and she did" with the actual verb fez, not an auxiliary — there is no to do propped substitute as in English.
Key Takeaways
- Fazer → fiz, (fizeste), fez, fizemos, fizeram. The two singulars fiz/fez are pure memorization; the rest uses a clean fiz- stem.
- Dizer → disse, (disseste), disse, dissemos, disseram, with a doubled -ss- throughout and identical eu/ele forms.
- O que você fez? is everyday gold — make it automatic.
- For ongoing elapsed time, fazer stays present: faz três anos, not fez.
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