Chegar (To Arrive) — Full Conjugation

Chegar means to arrive — at a place, at a time, at a conclusion. It is one of the most frequent verbs in Portuguese, used in every sentence about travel, timing, and reaching destinations. Grammatically, chegar is a regular first-conjugation (-ar) verb in its endings, but it has one consistent spelling complication: whenever the ending begins with -e-, the stem g- must be written gu- (pronounced as a hard "g") to preserve the hard consonant sound. Without this spelling rule, cheguei would be pronounced like "cheshei" in Portuguese phonetics.

This page walks through every tense, highlights the g → gu spelling change everywhere it occurs, and covers the crucial EP/BP difference in preposition use: European Portuguese says chegar a casa (to arrive home), while Brazilian Portuguese typically says chegar em casa.

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Present indicative — presente do indicativo

All endings begin with -a- or -e-. The only form where the ending starts with -a- before a vowel (no spelling trouble) is the 1sg; all others use a consonant-starting ending. In the present, no -e- endings appear, so the spelling is simply cheg-.

Imperfect indicative — pretérito imperfeito

All imperfect endings start with -a- (-ava, -avas, -ava, -ávamos, -avam) — no spelling change.

Preterite indicative — pretérito perfeito simples

The 1sg takes -ei, which begins with -e- → g → gu: cheguei (not chegei). The 1pl takes -ámos (with the European Portuguese acute accent): chegámos.

The accented chegámos is the European Portuguese preterite form, distinguishing it from the present chegamos. This accent was preserved in EP but removed in BP by the Acordo Ortográfico; in EP writing, it remains standard.

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

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

Present perfect — pretérito perfeito composto

Simple future — futuro do indicativo simples

Future perfect — futuro perfeito

Conditional — condicional (futuro do pretérito)

Conditional perfect — condicional composto

Present subjunctive — presente do conjuntivo

All endings begin with -e- → g → gu throughout: chegue, chegues, chegue, cheguemos, cheguem.

This is the single most error-prone table for learners. Chegue, not chege. Cheguem, not chegem.

Imperfect subjunctive — imperfeito do conjuntivo

Endings begin with -a- here, so no spelling change.

Future subjunctive — futuro do conjuntivo

Endings begin with -a- (after the -r- of the future subjunctive stem), so no spelling change.

Present perfect subjunctive — pretérito perfeito do conjuntivo

Pluperfect subjunctive — pretérito mais-que-perfeito do conjuntivo

Future perfect subjunctive — futuro perfeito do conjuntivo

Imperative — imperativo

The imperative combines forms from the present indicative (for tu) and the present subjunctive (for você, nós, vocês, and all negatives). Because the subjunctive stems have -gu-, so do the você, nós, vocês imperatives.

Affirmative:

Negative:

Chega! by itself is also a very common interjection meaning enough! / stop!.

Personal infinitive — infinitivo pessoal

Compound personal infinitive — infinitivo pessoal composto

Where the g → gu spelling change appears

Summarizing: the -gu- spelling appears in exactly those forms where the ending starts with -e-:

• Preterite 1sg: cheguei
• Present subjunctive (all forms): chegue, chegues, chegue, cheguemos, cheguem
• Imperative você, nós, vocês: chegue, cheguemos, cheguem
• All negative imperatives: não chegues, não chegue, não cheguemos, não cheguem

Everywhere else, the spelling is simply cheg-.

Preposition use: chegar a + place (EP) vs chegar em + place (BP)

This is a high-visibility EP/BP difference. In European Portuguese, the standard preposition after chegar is a (contracting with definite articles: ao, à, aos, às):

• chegar a casa — to arrive home
• chegar à escola — to arrive at school
• chegar a Lisboa — to arrive in Lisbon
• chegar ao trabalho — to arrive at work

In Brazilian Portuguese, you will frequently hear chegar em:

• (BP) chegar em casa, chegar na escola — to arrive home, to arrive at school

Chegar em casa sounds clearly Brazilian to a Portuguese ear and is used only very rarely in EP (sometimes with the meaning to arrive inside the house as opposed to to reach home). In European Portuguese, a / ao / à is the natural choice.

Note also that chegar a casa uses the bare a (without an article) — "home" in Portuguese does not take an article in this expression, much as English "to arrive home" takes no article.

Common uses and collocations

• chegar a + place — to arrive at/in a place (EP standard)
• chegar a casa — to arrive home (bare a, no article)
• chegar de + transport — to arrive by (transport). Cheguei de comboio = I arrived by train.
• chegar a tempo / chegar a horas — to arrive on time
• chegar cedo / chegar tarde — to arrive early / late
• chegar a ser + something — to become / end up as (something). Ele chegou a ser ministro = he even became a minister / got as far as minister.
• chegar a + infinitive — to get to, to happen to (do something). Cheguei a pensar que ele tinha morrido = I actually thought for a moment that he had died.
• chegar para — to be enough for. O dinheiro chega para o mês? = is the money enough for the month?
• Chega! — Enough! Stop! (very common as an interjection)
• Já chega! — That's enough! / That'll do!
• chegar ao fim — to reach the end
• chegar à conclusão — to reach the conclusion

Example sentences in context

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

• Chegar is a regular -ar verb with a consistent spelling change: g → gu whenever the ending begins with -e- (preterite 1sg, all of present subjunctive, most of imperative).
• European Portuguese uses chegar a (to a place); Brazilian Portuguese often uses chegar em. In EP, say chegar a casa, chegar à escola, chegar ao trabalho.
• The 1pl preterite is chegámos with an acute accent, distinguishing it from the present chegamos (this is standard EP spelling after the Acordo Ortográfico preserved the accent in this context for European Portuguese).
• Chega! by itself is a very common interjection meaning enough!.
• The pattern-partners of chegar in the spelling-change group include pagar → paguei, jogar → joguei, ligar → liguei, entregar → entreguei, obrigar → obriguei. Learn the pattern once and it generalizes to the entire -gar class.
• Useful idiomatic constructions: chegar a ser (to go so far as to be), chegar a + infinitive (to end up / happen to), chegar para (to be enough for), chegar à conclusão (to reach the conclusion).