Amar (To Love) — Full Conjugation

Amar means to love — but this deceptively simple translation is the single biggest trap waiting for an English-speaking learner. In English, you freely say "I love pizza," "I love this song," "I love my dog," "I love weekends." In Portuguese, amar does not work this way. Native European Portuguese speakers reserve amar for deep romantic love, parental love, and religious or spiritual love. For everything else — food, songs, hobbies, weather, friends, pets, places — they use gostar de ("to like") or adorar ("to adore, to love [casually]").

Get this wrong and your Portuguese will sound bizarre or even embarrassing. Say Amo este café to a waiter in Lisbon and he will either laugh politely or think you are being strange. Say Adoro este café or Gosto muito deste café and he will simply smile.

That said, amar is a textbook example of a regular -ar verb — in fact, it is the verb traditionally used in Portuguese grammar books to illustrate the first conjugation, precisely because it is maximally regular and has only two syllables. Every -ar verb you learn follows this exact pattern.

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Present indicative — presente do indicativo

Amo a minha família = I love my family.

Imperfect indicative — pretérito imperfeito

Background descriptions and past states. Because love is usually a state rather than a one-off event, amar appears far more often in the imperfect than in the preterite.

Ele amava-a desde a adolescência = He had loved her since adolescence.

Preterite indicative — pretérito perfeito simples

Usually signals that the love ended or refers to a finite past episode. Amei-o como nunca amei ninguém = I loved him as I never loved anyone.

EP keeps the acute: amámos (we loved) ≠ amamos (we love).

Pluperfect indicative, simple — pretérito mais-que-perfeito simples

Literary/formal. Found often in Camões, Eça de Queirós, and poetry.

Pluperfect indicative, compound — pretérito mais-que-perfeito composto

Present perfect — pretérito perfeito composto

Because the compound present perfect implies repetition or ongoing action "up to now," and love is a state, this tense is very uncommon with amar. You will rarely hear Tenho amado. It is not ungrammatical — a poet or a lover writing a reflective letter might use it — but in ordinary speech, use the simple present or imperfect instead.

Simple future — futuro do indicativo simples

Amar-te-ei para sempre — a formally elegant (and somewhat old-fashioned) way of saying "I will love you forever," with the object pronoun embedded in the future (mesoclisis). Everyday speech says simply Vou amar-te para sempre.

Future perfect — futuro perfeito

Conditional — condicional

Conditional perfect — condicional composto

Present subjunctive — presente do conjuntivo

Imperfect subjunctive — imperfeito do conjuntivo

Future subjunctive — futuro do conjuntivo

Present perfect subjunctive — pretérito perfeito do conjuntivo

Pluperfect subjunctive — pretérito mais-que-perfeito do conjuntivo

Future perfect subjunctive — futuro perfeito do conjuntivo

Imperative — imperativo

Commands of "love" are rare outside religious or poetic contexts, but the forms exist.

Affirmative:

Negative (uses present subjunctive):

Amai-vos uns aos outros ("Love one another") — the famous biblical imperative uses the archaic vós form.

Personal infinitive — infinitivo pessoal

Compound personal infinitive — infinitivo pessoal composto

When Portuguese speakers actually use amar

Understanding when to use amar is at least as important as knowing how to conjugate it. Here is a rough hierarchy from strongest (definitely amar) to weakest (definitely NOT amar):

Amar vs. gostar de vs. adorar — the three-tier system

• gostar de — the workhorse verb for "to like." Requires the preposition de. Gosto de ti = I like you (neutral, can imply affection).
• adorar — intensified liking. Takes a direct object. Adoro-te = I adore you / I love you (in a warm, casual way).
• amar — deep, weighty love. Takes a direct object. Amo-te = I love you (the serious romantic declaration).

A Portuguese couple in a three-year relationship may still be at adoro-te and only graduate to amo-te at a milestone moment. English does not make this distinction — hence the minefield.

Set phrases and literature

Amar lives mostly in fixed expressions, songs, poetry, and religious texts. Some examples:

• "Amai-vos uns aos outros" — Love one another (Gospel of John)
• "Amar é crer" — To love is to believe (Fernando Pessoa)
• "Amar como Camões amou" — To love as Camões loved (a common literary reference)
• "Amor com amor se paga" — Love is repaid with love (proverb)
• "Quem desdenha quer comprar" — loosely about love games (proverb)
• amar-se (reciprocal) — to love each other

Example sentences in context

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

• Amar is a fully regular -ar verb. It is the traditional model verb for the first conjugation.
• Amar is not the everyday word for "love" in Portuguese. Use it only for deep romantic, parental, or spiritual love.
• For food, films, hobbies, pets and general enthusiasm, use adorar. For mild liking, gostar de.
• Amar takes a direct object (no preposition). Contrast with gostar, which always needs de.
• The first-person plural EP preterite takes an acute: amámos ≠ amamos.
• The reciprocal amar-se ("to love each other") is alive and well in EP: Eles amam-se.