'Tu' with 2sg Verb Forms (NE, RS) | Portuguese (Brazil) Grammar

In a São Paulo classroom you may be taught that tu is "Portugal Portuguese" and irrelevant to Brazil. That is wrong. Tu is alive and well across huge swaths of Brazil — but it comes in two flavors that behave completely differently, and there is a third region that drops it entirely. This page is about the flavor that surprises learners most: the system in which tu takes its historically correct second-person-singular verb endings — tu falas, tu sabes, tu vens, tu és — the same forms you would hear in Lisbon. It thrives in parts of the Northeast (Pernambuco, Maranhão) and the North (notably Pará/Belém) and, most consistently of all, in Rio Grande do Sul. If you cannot recognize these forms, half of southern and northeastern Brazilian speech will sound ungrammatical to you when in fact it is the most conservative version of the language.

The three 'tu' systems of Brazil

Before the paradigm, fix the big picture firmly in mind. Brazil has essentially three ways of handling tu:

System	Where	Example	Verb agreement
(1) tu + 2sg forms	NE (PE, MA), North (PA/Belém), Rio Grande do Sul	tu falas, tu sabes, tu és	true 2sg (-s)
(2) tu + 3sg forms	Rio de Janeiro, much of colloquial BR	tu fala, tu sabe, tu é	3sg (no -s)
(3) no tu at all	São Paulo (paulistano)	você fala, você sabe, você é	3sg via você

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The single fact that organizes all of this: in System 1 the verb carries the 2sg -s ending that agrees with tu; in System 2 the pronoun tu survives but the verb has drifted to the 3sg form (same as você); in System 3 the pronoun itself is gone. Listen for the -s: its presence tells you you are in System 1.

The true 2sg paradigm

The defining mark of System 1 is the second-person-singular ending, which is almost always -s in the present (and changes shape in other tenses). Here it is across the three conjugation classes and the most important irregulars:

Verb	tu (2sg) — System 1	tu (3sg) — System 2	English
falar	tu falas	tu fala	you speak
comer	tu comes	tu come	you eat
partir	tu partes	tu parte	you leave
saber	tu sabes	tu sabe	you know
vir	tu vens	tu vem	you come
ser	tu és	tu é	you are
ter	tu tens	tu tem	you have
ir	tu vais	tu vai	you go
querer	tu queres	tu quer	you want

Rio Grande do Sul (gaúcho)

In the south, System 1 is so consistent that tu with correct 2sg endings is simply the unmarked, everyday register. The vocabulary helps you spot it too — guri/guria ("kid"), bah, tchê, chimarrão.

Tu já viste isso, guri?

Have you seen this, kid?

Tu sabes onde fica a rodoviária?

Do you know where the bus station is?

Bah, tu não vens hoje à tarde?

Aw, aren't you coming this afternoon?

Notice the past tense too: the 2sg preterite ends in -ste (tu viste, tu falaste, tu comeste), and the imperfect in -s as well (tu falavas, tu vinhas).

Tu falaste com o professor sobre a nota?

Did you talk to the professor about the grade?

Northeast (Pernambuco, Maranhão) and North (Pará)

In parts of the Northeast, System 1 is common but more variable — the same speaker may say tu vais in one sentence and tu vai in the next. Maranhão (especially São Luís) is famous for very consistent 2sg tu; Pernambuco uses it widely but mixes with System 2. Pará/Belém, in the North region, is another strong 2sg-tu stronghold often grouped with this pattern.

Tu queres ir à praia comigo amanhã?

Do you want to go to the beach with me tomorrow?

Menino, tu vens jantar ou não?

Kid, are you coming to dinner or not?

Contrast in action: System 1 vs System 2

The cleanest way to internalize the difference is to see the same sentence in both systems. The pronoun is identical; only the verb differs.

(RS/NE — System 1) Tu vais ao mercado hoje?

Are you going to the market today?

(Rio — System 2) Tu vai no mercado hoje?

Are you going to the market today?

Both are completely natural — in their respective regions. System 2 is not a mistake by carioca standards; it is simply an innovation in which tu lost its dedicated verb agreement and borrowed the 3sg form (the same one você uses). System 1 preserves the older Romance pattern, which is why it lines up with European Portuguese.

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If you adopt System 1, be consistent: once you commit to tu, every verb in that clause should carry the 2sg ending — Tu sabes que tu falaste alto demais? Mixing System 1 and System 2 in the same breath (Tu sabes... tu fala...) marks you as a non-native who memorized forms without the underlying rule. Pick a lane.

The clitic and the imperative go with the system

Two consequences follow from choosing true tu:

Object pronoun. True tu pairs with the clitic te and the possessive teu/tua: Eu te disse, lembras? ("I told you, remember?"). System 2 speakers may mix te and seu.
Imperative. The affirmative 2sg imperative drops the -s: fala! (from tu falas), vem! (from tu vens), vê! (from tu vês). So Vem cá, guri! ("Come here, kid!") is the System-1 imperative of vir.

Vem cá que eu te mostro uma coisa.

Come here and I'll show you something.

Tu trouxeste o que eu te pedi?

Did you bring what I asked you for?

Why English speakers find this disorienting — and how to cope

English collapsed thou (its own tu) centuries ago and now has a single "you" with a single verb form, so the notion that one informal pronoun could carry a whole extra set of endings in some regions and not others is genuinely foreign. Worse, the verb endings of System 1 are exactly the ones most courses label "European Portuguese" and quietly skip for Brazilian learners — so when you finally hear tu sabes from a gaúcho, your instinct is to "correct" it. Resist that. The practical strategy:

For comprehension (mandatory): learn to recognize the 2sg endings (-s present, -ste preterite). Train your ear so tu vais and tu vai both parse instantly.
For production (optional): unless you live in or are speaking with people from RS or the NE, you do not need to produce System 1. Você
- 3sg is understood everywhere. But if you do adopt tu, stay in one system.

Common Mistakes

❌ Tu vai sabes onde é? (mixing System 1 and 2)

Incorrect — pick one system; don't combine a 3sg verb and a 2sg verb for the same tu.

✅ Tu sabes onde é? / Tu sabe onde é?

Do you know where it is? (System 1 / System 2)

❌ Tu falaste? treated as 'wrong Brazilian'.

Incorrect judgment — tu falaste is the standard gaúcho/NE 2sg preterite, not an error.

✅ Tu falaste com ela ontem?

Did you talk to her yesterday?

❌ Tu vais? said in São Paulo casual speech.

Marginal — System 1 tu sounds out of place in paulistano; use você vai.

✅ Você vai?

Are you going?

❌ Tu sabes, então me liga depois. (mixing te/seu and tu)

Incorrect — true tu takes te/teu; here the imperative liga is fine but watch possessives elsewhere.

✅ Tu sabes, então me liga depois, tá? (consistent tu + te)

You know, so call me later, okay?

❌ Tu é gaúcho? (System 2 form claimed to be RS speech)

Marginal — in RS the expected form is the 2sg tu és, not tu é.

✅ Tu és gaúcho?

Are you from Rio Grande do Sul?

Key Takeaways

Brazil has three tu systems: (1) tu
- 2sg forms (NE, RS), (2) tu
  - 3sg forms (Rio, colloquial), (3) no tu (São Paulo).
The diagnostic for System 1 is the 2sg -s ending (present tu falas, preterite tu falaste).
System 1 aligns with European Portuguese and is most consistent in Rio Grande do Sul; it is common but variable in the Northeast.
True tu pulls along the clitic te, the possessive teu, and the -s-less imperative (vem!, fala!).
Recognize all three systems for comprehension; for production, stay consistent within one.

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