Crescer (To Grow) — Full Conjugation

Crescer means to grow — children growing taller, businesses growing in size, crops growing, a list of problems growing longer, or a feeling (crescer dentro de mim uma raiva…) growing inside you. It is one of the everyday verbs a learner encounters as soon as they talk about childhood, plants, cities, or change over time. Grammatically, crescer belongs to the second conjugation (-er) and is completely regular in its endings. However, it carries a purely orthographic complication: the stem ends in -sc-, and before the vowels -a- and -o- the c must be written ç so that the soft /s/ sound is preserved. That is why you write cresço (I grow), cresça (grow, present subjunctive), but cresces (you grow) with plain c.

This page gives you every conjugated form of crescer, organized tense by tense. There are no truly irregular forms — the spelling alternation is predictable — but it trips up almost every beginner at least once.

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Present indicative — presente do indicativo

Use this tense for current actions, habits, and general truths. As crianças crescem depressa = children grow up fast. Note the ç in cresço only.

Imperfect indicative — pretérito imperfeito

Use this tense for past habits, background descriptions, and actions in progress in the past. Crescia numa aldeia pequena = I was growing up in a small village. No cedilha anywhere here — the endings all start with -i-.

Preterite indicative — pretérito perfeito simples

Use this tense for completed past actions. Cresceu dez centímetros num ano = he grew ten centimeters in a year.

Note: the nós form crescemos is identical in the present and preterite. Context tells you which is meant — agora crescemos (now we are growing) vs no ano passado crescemos (last year we grew).

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

A synthetic pluperfect used mainly in literary and formal writing. In everyday speech, Portuguese uses the compound pluperfect (below).

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

The everyday way to say had grown. Formed with the imperfect of ter plus the past participle crescido.

Present perfect — pretérito perfeito composto

Describes an action that has been happening repeatedly or continuously up to now — not the English present perfect. A economia tem crescido muito = the economy has been growing a lot (lately, ongoing).

Simple future — futuro do indicativo simples

Formal/written future. In everyday speech, ir + infinitivo (vai crescer) is far more common.

Future perfect — futuro perfeito

Will have grown. Formed with the future of ter plus crescido.

Conditional — condicional

Hypothetical actions, polite requests. Cresceria mais depressa com mais sol = it would grow faster with more sun.

Conditional perfect — condicional composto

Would have grown. Conditional of ter plus crescido.

Present subjunctive — presente do conjuntivo

Used in subordinate clauses after verbs of wish, doubt, emotion, or command. Every form starts with c-ç- because the endings begin with -a.

The present subjunctive of crescer is built by taking the eu form of the present indicative (cresço), dropping the -o, and adding the subjunctive endings -a, -as, -a, -amos, -ais, -am. This is why the cedilha appears throughout — it was already there in cresço.

Imperfect subjunctive — imperfeito do conjuntivo

For hypothetical, contrary-to-fact, or past-triggered subjunctive contexts. Se o bebé crescesse mais depressa… = if the baby grew faster…

Future subjunctive — futuro do conjuntivo

A living tense in Portuguese. Used after se, quando, enquanto for future possibilities. Quando cresceres, vais perceber = when you grow up, you'll understand.

Present perfect subjunctive — pretérito perfeito do conjuntivo

Espero que tenhas crescido = I hope you have grown.

Pluperfect subjunctive — pretérito mais-que-perfeito do conjuntivo

Se tivesse crescido noutro país… = if I had grown up in another country…

Future perfect subjunctive — futuro perfeito do conjuntivo

Imperative — imperativo

The affirmative tu form comes from the present indicative minus the final -s (cresces → cresce). All other affirmative and all negative forms come from the present subjunctive — so they all carry ç.

Affirmative:

Negative:

Imperatives of crescer are rare in real use — you don't often order someone to grow — but cresce! is idiomatic when telling someone to grow up / stop being childish (informal).

Personal infinitive — infinitivo pessoal

Identical in form to the future subjunctive. Used after prepositions and when the infinitive's subject needs marking.

Usage notes

Crescer covers a broader semantic range than English grow. Pay attention to the prepositions:

• crescer (no preposition) — to grow in height, size, number, intensity. Physical and figurative.
• crescer em + place — to grow up in a place (note: Portuguese uses crescer where English uses grow up; there is no separate phrasal verb).
• crescer + percentage / amount — the amount is simply added, or introduced by em. As vendas cresceram 10% / cresceram em 10%. Avoid cresceram de 10%.
• crescer com + someone / something — to grow up with (siblings, a practice, a situation). Cresci com três irmãos.
• crescer-se (reflexive, rarer) — to grow in confidence, to rise to the occasion. Cresceu-se perante a dificuldade = he rose to the challenge.

The noun is crescimento (growth). The adjective crescido / crescida means grown, adult — já está crescido = he's already grown up.

Example sentences in context

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

• Crescer has fully regular -er endings. The only complication is orthographic: c → ç before the vowels -a- and -o-.
• The affected forms are the eu present indicative (cresço) and the entire present subjunctive and subjunctive-derived imperative (cresça, cresças, cresça, cresçamos, cresçam).
• Every other tense keeps plain c because the endings begin with -e- or -i-.
• Crescer is intransitive ("something grows"). For the transitive English grow (a plant, a business you own), Portuguese uses cultivar, plantar, criar, desenvolver, expandir depending on context.
• The noun is crescimento; the adjective crescido / crescida means grown, fully developed.
• The same spelling rule applies to every -cer verb: conhecer → conheço, conheça; parecer → pareço, pareça; aquecer → aqueço, aqueça. Learn the rule once and you have the pattern for hundreds of verbs.