Estudar (To Study) — Full Conjugation

Estudar — to study — is one of the first verbs every learner meets, and one of the friendliest: it is a fully regular first-conjugation (-ar) verb, with no spelling changes and no irregular participle. Every ending attaches cleanly to the stem estud-. It is also an extremely productive verb: you use it to talk about schooling (estudo medicina), preparation (estudar para o exame), academic subjects, and more figuratively, the act of carefully examining something (estudar uma proposta).

This page gives you every conjugated form of estudar, and explains the prepositions that follow it and the contrast with aprender.

Header

Present indicative — presente do indicativo

Imperfect indicative — pretérito imperfeito

Past habits and background descriptions. Quando era criança, estudava piano = when I was a child, I used to study piano.

Preterite indicative — pretérito perfeito simples

Completed past actions. Note the nós form estudámos with the acute accent — European Portuguese standard, distinguishing the preterite from the present estudamos.

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

Synthetic pluperfect — literary register. Estudara = had studied.

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

Present perfect — pretérito perfeito composto

Repeated or continuous studying up to now. Tenho estudado todas as noites = I've been studying every night (lately).

Simple future — futuro do indicativo simples

Future perfect — futuro perfeito

Conditional — condicional (futuro do pretérito)

Conditional perfect — condicional composto

Present subjunctive — presente do conjuntivo

Imperfect subjunctive — imperfeito do conjuntivo

Future subjunctive — futuro do conjuntivo

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:

Personal infinitive — infinitivo pessoal

Compound personal infinitive — infinitivo pessoal composto

Usage notes

estudar + field of study

The field is a direct object (no preposition):

estudar em + place

For where someone studies (institution or location), use em:

estudar para + exam or purpose

For exam preparation or a goal, use para:

estudar com + person/resource

For studying with someone or something, use com:

estudar vs aprender

These two verbs are not interchangeable. Estudar describes the process of studying — the activity of sitting down with books, reviewing material, practising. Aprender describes the result of learning — actually coming to know something.

• Estudo português todos os dias — I study Portuguese every day (process).
• Aprendi português em dois anos — I learned Portuguese in two years (result).

You can estudar without aprender (study without actually learning), and occasionally aprender without estudar (pick something up without formal study):

Asking about someone's studies

The everyday question in Portugal is onde estudas? or o que estudas?:

Common expressions

• estudar de cor — to study by heart, memorize
• estudar a fundo — to study thoroughly
• estudar à pressa — to study in a rush (as before an exam)
• estudar uma proposta / um caso — to examine a proposal / a case carefully
• estudante — student (derived from the same root)

Example sentences in context

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

• Estudar is a fully regular -ar verb. No spelling changes, no irregular participle — a perfect template for regular -ar conjugation.
• The preterite nós form is estudámos (acute accent) in EP, distinguishing it from the present estudamos.
• Field of study: direct object (no preposition): estudo medicina.
• Place of study: em
  • contracted article: estudo na universidade.
• Preparation goal: para: estudar para o exame.
• Estudar is the process, aprender is the result — they are not synonyms.
• EP progressive is estar a estudar, not estar estudando.
• The tu affirmative imperative is estuda; the negative switches to subjunctive não estudes.