Falar (To Speak/Talk) — Full Conjugation

Falar means to speak or to talk. It is one of the first verbs you'll learn in Portuguese — it appears in your first self-introduction (falo um pouco de português), in the most common request you'll ever make (pode falar mais devagar?), and in the politest thing you can say about someone's fluency (ela fala muito bem português). Grammatically, falar is completely regular — along with amar it is the model for every -ar verb in the language. If you can conjugate falar, you can conjugate thousands of other -ar verbs.

What you need to watch for is not the endings but the prepositions: falar com alguém (talk with someone), falar de / sobre algo (talk about something), falar para alguém (speak to an audience), falar + idioma (speak a language — no preposition, and no article).

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Present indicative — presente do indicativo

Imperfect indicative — pretérito imperfeito

Preterite indicative — pretérito perfeito simples

The EP acute distinction. Compare:

• falamos = we speak (present)
• falámos = we spoke (preterite)

European Portuguese preserves this written and spoken contrast. Brazilian Portuguese collapses both into falamos. In EP, neglecting the accent in writing creates genuine ambiguity.

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

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: falar + language (no article)

One of the most distinctive patterns in Portuguese. Unlike English speak Portuguese (no article) and French je parle *le français (with article), Portuguese matches English: *no article when the language is the direct object of falar.

But if you add a qualifier, the article returns:

Usage: falar com vs falar a vs falar para vs falar de/sobre

This is where falar is trickier than English "talk." Each preposition carries a slightly different meaning.

In everyday EP, falar com is by far the most common for talking to a person, and falar de / falar sobre are largely interchangeable for the topic — though sobre feels a touch more formal.

Usage: falar vs dizer vs conversar

• falar — to speak, to talk (general act of speaking, often without specifying what was said)
• dizer — to say (specific words, usually followed by the content)
• conversar — to chat, to have a conversation (implies two-way, relaxed talking)

Example sentences in context

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

• Falar is the model regular -ar verb. If you can conjugate falar, you have the template for thousands of other verbs.
• EP preserves the preterite/present distinction with an acute: falamos (we speak) vs falámos (we spoke).
• Falar + language: no article (falo português). Add a qualifier and the article returns.
• Falar com is your default for talking to a person. Falar para is for addressing an audience. Falar a is more formal.
• Falar de and falar sobre are nearly interchangeable for topics; sobre is a touch more formal.
• Distinguish falar (the act of speaking) from dizer (the content of what was said) and conversar (casual two-way talk).