Comer (To Eat) — Full Conjugation

Comer means to eat, and it is the textbook model verb for the second conjugation (-er). If you can conjugate comer, you can conjugate hundreds of other -er verbs: beber (to drink), aprender (to learn), viver (to live), vender (to sell), escrever (to write — regular except for the participle), and many more. There are no stem changes, no irregular endings, no spelling traps. This is -er grammar in its purest form.

This page gives every conjugated form of comer, tense by tense, along with usage notes and the idiomatic expressions built around food and eating that you will hear every day in Portugal.

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Present indicative — presente do indicativo

Imperfect indicative — pretérito imperfeito

Used for past habits and background description. Quando era pequeno, comia fruta todos os dias.

Preterite indicative — pretérito perfeito simples

Note: the nós form comemos is identical in the present and the preterite. Context almost always disambiguates; if it does not, Portuguese speakers will add a time expression like agora (now) or ontem (yesterday).

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

Literary and formal. In speech, use the compound form below.

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

Present perfect — pretérito perfeito composto

Remember: this is not the English present perfect. It marks a repeated or habitual action up to and including the present. Tenho comido menos carne = I have been eating less meat (lately, as an ongoing change).

Simple future — futuro do indicativo simples

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

Note: the first and third-person singular future subjunctive comer is identical to the infinitive. Context always distinguishes them.

Present perfect subjunctive — pretérito perfeito do conjuntivo

Pluperfect subjunctive — pretérito mais-que-perfeito do conjuntivo

Future perfect subjunctive — futuro perfeito do conjuntivo

Imperative — imperativo

Affirmative:

Negative (identical to the present subjunctive with não):

The Portuguese imperative come! is what a parent says to a child at the table ("Eat!"). In the negative, remember the switch: não comas!

Personal infinitive — infinitivo pessoal

Compound personal infinitive — infinitivo pessoal composto

Usage and common collocations

• comer fora — to eat out (at a restaurant). Hoje vamos comer fora.
• comer em casa — to eat at home
• comer bem / mal — to eat well / badly (in the sense of quality or healthiness)
• comer pouco / muito — to eat little / a lot
• comer de mais — to overeat (also spelled comer demais, both are accepted)
• comer uma refeição — to eat a meal
• estar de dieta / de regime — to be on a diet (note: you don't "eat a diet"; you "are on" one)
• comer como um pássaro / um bezerro — to eat like a bird / like a calf (idioms for small / huge eaters)
• dar de comer a alguém — to feed someone (literally "give of eating to someone")
• comer com os olhos — to eye hungrily, to stare at food with desire

Register note on "comer"

In informal speech, comer is also vulgar slang for sexual activity (similar to English "to have" in the same sense). This usage exists in both European and Brazilian Portuguese, though it is more widespread in Brazil. In formal contexts the word is entirely neutral — learners should know this so they can understand innuendo in films and songs, but the sexual sense is (vulgar) and never appropriate in polite company.

Example sentences in context

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

• Comer is perfectly regular. It is the model verb for the second conjugation (-er), alongside beber.
• Past participle is comido; gerund is comendo. No irregularities anywhere.
• The nós present and preterite are both comemos; context or a time expression tells you which.
• Use comer fora for "eat out," not comer em fora or comer no restaurante (the latter is grammatical but means "eat at the restaurant," a specific one).
• For the "I have been eating" sense of repeated/ongoing action, Portuguese uses tenho comido. For a single past event ("I ate"), use the simple preterite comi.
• In the negative imperative, come! switches to não comas! — the subjunctive form.