The -ar class is by far the largest group of verbs in Portuguese, so learning its preterite pattern unlocks thousands of verbs at once. The endings are stable and predictable, with one small spelling wrinkle in the eu form of a few verbs — which we will cover in full.
The endings
To form the pretérito perfeito of a regular -ar verb, drop the -ar and add these endings:
| Person | Ending | falar → |
|---|---|---|
| eu | -ei | falei |
| tu (regional) | -aste | falaste |
| você / ele / ela | -ou | falou |
| nós | -amos | falamos |
| vocês / eles / elas | -aram | falaram |
The two signature forms
Two endings give this tense its unmistakable sound:
- -ei for eu. This is the marker English speakers should burn into memory: falei, trabalhei, comprei. It is short, stressed on the final -ei, and it never changes.
- -ou for você/ele/ela. Highly visible and frequent in speech: falou, comprou, chegou. When you hear a verb ending in a stressed -ou, you are almost always hearing a third-person preterite.
Ela comprou um carro novo.
She bought a new car.
Você trabalhou no sábado?
Did you work on Saturday?
The nós overlap
The nós form falamos is identical to the present tense. Nós falamos is both "we speak" and "we spoke." There is no accent or spelling difference to separate them — context resolves it, as discussed in the preterite overview.
Ontem nós trabalhamos até tarde.
Yesterday we worked late. (past — the time word 'ontem' signals it)
A full table of common -ar verbs
Every verb below follows the falar pattern exactly. Learn one, get them all.
| Infinitive | eu | você/ele/ela | nós | vocês/eles/elas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| falar (to speak) | falei | falou | falamos | falaram |
| trabalhar (to work) | trabalhei | trabalhou | trabalhamos | trabalharam |
| comprar (to buy) | comprei | comprou | compramos | compraram |
| gostar (to like) | gostei | gostou | gostamos | gostaram |
Eu gostei muito do filme.
I really liked the movie.
Eles compraram a casa em 2019.
They bought the house in 2019.
Spelling-change verbs: c, g, and ç before the -ei
Here is the one wrinkle. A small set of -ar verbs change their spelling in the eu form only — and they do it for a reason that is entirely about pronunciation, not grammar.
In Portuguese, the letters c and g are "soft" before e and i (so ce sounds like /se/ and ge like /zhe/) but "hard" before a, o, u. When a verb's stem ends in a hard c, g, or ç sound, adding the eu ending -ei would put an e right after it — which would change how it sounds. To preserve the original pronunciation, the spelling adjusts:
| Infinitive | Stem ends in | eu form | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| ficar (to stay) | hard c /k/ | fiquei | c → qu keeps the /k/ sound before -ei |
| chegar (to arrive) | hard g /g/ | cheguei | g → gu keeps the /g/ sound before -ei |
| pagar (to pay) | hard g /g/ | paguei | g → gu keeps the /g/ sound before -ei |
| começar (to begin) | ç /s/ | comecei | ç → c keeps the /s/ sound before -ei |
| almoçar (to have lunch) | ç /s/ | almocei | ç → c keeps the /s/ sound before -ei |
The crucial point: this change happens in the eu form only. Every other person keeps the original spelling because the ending starts with a or o, which already preserves the hard sound: ficou, ficamos, ficaram; chegou, chegamos, chegaram; começou, começamos, começaram.
Eu fiquei em casa o fim de semana inteiro.
I stayed home the whole weekend.
Eu cheguei atrasado de novo.
I arrived late again.
Eu comecei a aprender português este ano.
I started learning Portuguese this year.
Eu já paguei a conta.
I already paid the bill.
Eu almocei com a minha mãe ontem.
I had lunch with my mom yesterday.
For the full set of these spelling-change verbs and the rules behind them, see spelling changes in the -ar preterite.
A reassuring contrast with English
English past tenses are full of unpredictable surprises in exactly this person: I go → I went, I buy → I bought, I bring → I brought. Portuguese regular -ar verbs have none of that. The eu form is uniformly -ei, and the only adjustment — fiquei, cheguei — is a tidy spelling rule that doesn't even change the sound. Once you trust -ei, you can produce the eu preterite of any regular -ar verb on the spot.
Common Mistakes
❌ Eu ficei em casa.
Incorrect — 'ficar' needs the c→qu change before -ei to keep the /k/ sound.
✅ Eu fiquei em casa.
I stayed home.
❌ Eu chegei tarde.
Incorrect — 'chegar' needs g→gu before -ei to keep the hard /g/.
✅ Eu cheguei tarde.
I arrived late.
❌ Eu começei a estudar.
Incorrect — the ç becomes c before -ei (the ç only exists before a, o, u).
✅ Eu comecei a estudar.
I started studying.
❌ Eu falo com ela ontem.
Incorrect — 'falo' is present tense; a finished past action needs 'falei.'
✅ Eu falei com ela ontem.
I talked to her yesterday.
❌ Ela falei com o chefe.
Incorrect — '-ei' is the eu ending; she takes '-ou.'
✅ Ela falou com o chefe.
She talked to the boss.
Related Topics
- Pretérito Perfeito Simples OverviewA1 — An introduction to the pretérito perfeito simples, Brazilian Portuguese's main past tense for completed actions, and how it maps onto English.
- 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.
- Pretérito Perfeito: Regular -ir VerbsA1 — How to conjugate regular -ir verbs in the Brazilian Portuguese preterite — the most regular of the three verb classes.
- Spelling Changes in -ar PreteriteA2 — Why ficar becomes fiquei and começar becomes comecei in the Brazilian preterite — the purely orthographic c/g/ç adjustments in the eu form of -ar verbs.
- Present Indicative: Regular -ar VerbsA1 — How to conjugate regular -ar verbs in the Brazilian Portuguese present indicative — plus the mandatory 'de' after gostar.