Construir (To Build) — Full Conjugation

Construir means to build — a house, a bridge, a company, a friendship, an argument, a nation. It is one of a small but important family of verbs ending in -uir (construir, destruir, diminuir, contribuir, possuir) that share a peculiar feature: in the stressed present-tense forms, the stem vowel u is replaced by ó (or is followed by an epenthetic vowel), giving forms like constrói rather than the expected construe. Alongside this stem change, construir is also a minefield of hiatus accents — the í that appears in construí, construímos, construíste must be written with an acute to mark the hiatus between two vowels.

This page gives you every conjugated form of construir and walks you through the stem-change and accent rules so you do not make the two mistakes almost every learner makes (constroi without the accent; construi for the 1sg preterite without the acute).

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Present indicative — presente do indicativo

This is where the stem change happens. In European Portuguese, the traditional forms constróis and constrói carry the open-ó. The eu form remains construo (no stem change, because the stress falls on -u-), and 1pl / 2pl keep the unchanged stem.

Note carefully: construímos (1pl) is written with an acute on í because the sequence u-í would otherwise be ambiguous — the í carries its own stressed syllable, and Portuguese orthography marks this hiatus explicitly. Without the accent (construimos) the word would be a common misspelling.

Imperfect indicative — pretérito imperfeito

The imperfect is stem-stable: every form keeps constru- and adds the regular -ir imperfect endings. But because every ending begins with -ia, you need the hiatus accent on í throughout.

Preterite indicative — pretérito perfeito simples

The preterite is regular in its endings, but the hiatus accents are unforgiving. Construí (1sg) needs the acute to distinguish the stressed -í from an unstressed sequence; without it, a reader would pronounce the verb as if u were the stressed vowel. Missing this accent is one of the most common spelling mistakes in written Portuguese.

Note: the ele form construiu does not take an accent, because the stressed vowel is the final -u, not the i. This is the one preterite form without an accent. The 1pl construímos is identical in the present and preterite — context distinguishes.

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

A literary, synthetic form of had built. In speech, use the compound form (tinha construído).

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

The everyday equivalent of had built, built on imperfect ter + past participle.

Present perfect — pretérito perfeito composto

Describes a continuous or repeated action from the past up to the present. Têm construído muitos prédios nesta zona. = They've been building a lot of apartment blocks in this area.

Simple future — futuro do indicativo simples

Future perfect — futuro perfeito

Conditional — condicional (futuro do pretérito)

Conditional perfect — condicional composto

Present subjunctive — presente do conjuntivo

The present subjunctive is built from the eu form of the present indicative (construo) — drop the -o and add the subjunctive endings. The stem change does not apply here; every form keeps constru-.

Imperfect subjunctive — imperfeito do conjuntivo

Future subjunctive — futuro do conjuntivo

A living tense in Portuguese. Used after se, quando, enquanto for future possibilities. Quando construíres a casa, convida-nos. = When you build the house, invite us.

Note: the hiatus accent appears in construíres and construírem (because these forms have stressed í next to u), but not in construir, construirmos, construirdes, where the stress falls elsewhere.

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 tu affirmative takes the stem-changed form constrói, matching the 3sg present indicative. The negative uses the present subjunctive construas (with unchanged stem).

Affirmative:

Negative (identical to the present subjunctive with não):

Personal infinitive — infinitivo pessoal

As with all regular verbs, the personal infinitive forms are identical to the future subjunctive. Context distinguishes them.

Compound personal infinitive — infinitivo pessoal composto

Usage notes

Construir takes a direct object — you build something, no preposition needed: construir uma casa, construir uma ponte, construir uma relação. Compare:

• construir uma casa — to build a house (literal)
• construir uma nação — to build a nation (figurative)
• construir um argumento — to build an argument
• construir uma relação / uma amizade — to build a relationship / a friendship
• construir sobre (algo) — to build on (something) — Construímos sobre as descobertas dos nossos antecessores.

Unlike fazer ("to make, to do"), which is general and informal, construir implies structure, planning, and assembly. Fazer uma casa sounds strange; construir uma casa is the right verb. But fazer um bolo is idiomatic — you don't "build" a cake.

In the passive, construir is common: A ponte foi construída em 1966. And the past participle construído is itself a frequent adjective: um edifício recém-construído (a newly built building).

Example sentences in context

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

• Construir is a -uir verb: in the stressed present-indicative forms, u changes to ó in the spelling (constróis, constrói, constroem), but stays in construo (1sg).
• Hiatus accents are everywhere: whenever a stressed í appears next to u, write the acute — construí, construíste, construímos, construíram, construía, construíamos, construíres, construírem.
• The past participle is regular: construído — and the í needs the accent here too.
• The tu affirmative imperative is constrói (with stem change); the negative reverts to the subjunctive without the change: não construas.
• Use construir for structured, planned construction — houses, bridges, nations, arguments, relationships. Do not use fazer for these.