Conseguir (To Manage/Get) — Full Conjugation

Conseguir is one of the most useful verbs in spoken European Portuguese, and one of the most commonly mis-conjugated by learners. It means, roughly, to manage to / to be able to / to succeed in — with a specific emphasis that distinguishes it from poder. Where poder expresses general ability or permission ("I can, I may"), conseguir expresses successful achievement: not just having the capacity to do something, but actually pulling it off. Consigo abrir a porta is a stronger claim than posso abrir a porta — it says the door actually opens when I try.

Grammatically, conseguir is a third-conjugation (-ir) verb with an e → i stem change: the e in the stem -seg- becomes i in the first-person singular present indicative and throughout the present subjunctive. The rest of the indicative keeps e. The preterite, imperfect, future, and conditional are regular. The past participle conseguido is regular too.

Header

Present indicative — presente do indicativo

Here is the stem change. The eu form uses the i-stem: consigo, not consego. Every other form keeps the e-stem.

Orthographic note: the stem is spelled -segu- (with silent u) before e to keep the hard /g/ sound. Before o or a, you drop the u and write plain -sig-: consigo (1sg present), consiga (subjunctive). The silent-u convention applies to many verbs with -gu- stems (seguir, distinguir).

Imperfect indicative — pretérito imperfeito

Fully regular, stem keeps e.

Preterite indicative — pretérito perfeito simples

Fully regular.

Note: as with all regular -ir verbs, the nós form conseguimos is the same in the present and the preterite.

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

Conditional perfect — condicional composto

Present subjunctive — presente do conjuntivo

The i-stem appears throughout the present subjunctive — every ending starts with -a, so every form uses -sig-. This is the block where learners most often slip back to -seg-. Memorize the pattern: consiga, consigas, consiga, consigamos, consigam.

Imperfect subjunctive — imperfeito do conjuntivo

Regular, stem keeps e.

Future subjunctive — futuro do conjuntivo

Regular, stem keeps e.

Present perfect subjunctive — pretérito perfeito do conjuntivo

Pluperfect subjunctive — pretérito mais-que-perfeito do conjuntivo

Future perfect subjunctive — futuro perfeito do conjuntivo

Imperative — imperativo

All forms from the subjunctive keep the i-stem: consiga, consigamos, consigam. Only the tu affirmative keeps the e-stem (because it comes from the present indicative).

Affirmative:

Negative:

That said, conseguir is rarely used in the imperative — you don't usually order someone to "succeed." You will see these forms most often in exhortations or motivational speech (consigam terminar antes das seis!) rather than in ordinary commands.

Personal infinitive — infinitivo pessoal

Compound personal infinitive — infinitivo pessoal composto

Usage: conseguir + infinitive (no preposition)

The single most common use of conseguir is with a bare infinitive: conseguir + infinitive = to manage to / to be able to (do something). There is no preposition between the two verbs. This is worth emphasizing because many learners assume, by analogy with começar a fazer or ajudar a fazer, that every Portuguese auxiliary takes a before the infinitive. It doesn't.

Conseguir vs. poder

• poder = to be able (general ability or permission). Posso ajudar-te = I can help you (I have the capacity and/or the permission).
• conseguir = to manage, to succeed in (actual achievement). Consigo ajudar-te = I can (actually) help you — I have the means to do it successfully.

In negative sentences the contrast is especially sharp: Não posso ir à festa means "I can't go" because something prevents me (obligation, permission, external circumstance). Não consigo ir à festa means "I can't manage to go" — often implying I'm trying but failing, or that the attempt would fail.

Usage: conseguir + noun — to obtain

With a noun object, conseguir means to obtain or to get hold of something, usually with an implication of effort:

Example sentences in context

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

• Conseguir is a third-conjugation (-ir) verb with an e → i stem change in the 1sg present (consigo) and throughout the present subjunctive (consiga, consigas, consiga, consigamos, consigam).
• Every other tense — imperfect, preterite, future, conditional, imperfect subjunctive, future subjunctive — is regular with the e-stem.
• Conseguir + infinitive takes no preposition: consigo fazer, never consigo a fazer.
• With an infinitive complement, conseguir emphasizes actual achievement ("manage to, succeed in"), distinguishing it from poder ("be able to, have permission to").
• With a noun object, conseguir means to obtain or to get hold of, usually implying some effort.
• The past participle conseguido is regular and appears in all compound tenses.