Meter (To Put/Insert) — Full Conjugation

Meter is one of the most useful verbs in European Portuguese — and one that learners often underuse because textbooks focus on pôr. In Portugal, meter is the everyday word for putting something inside something: the keys in your pocket, the plate in the dishwasher, the clothes in the bag, the card in the machine. Where pôr tends to be the neutral, formal, or general "to place," meter carries a stronger sense of inserting, pushing in, fitting in a space. Listen to European Portuguese for ten minutes and you will hear meter constantly: mete isso aqui, metes o cartão, meti a roupa a lavar, mete-te na fila.

And meter is regular. No stem changes, no irregular participle, no quirks in the preterite. It behaves like any other textbook -er verb — comer, beber, aprender. The interesting part of this verb is not the conjugation. It is the range of uses: physical insertion, figurative involvement, scaring someone, getting involved in things one should not, and a small forest of idioms.

Header

Present indicative — presente do indicativo

Imperfect indicative — pretérito imperfeito

Preterite indicative — pretérito perfeito simples

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

Literary.

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 (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

Meter vs. pôr — the everyday choice

The two verbs overlap, but there is a reliable tendency you can lean on:

• pôr — to place, to put (neutral, general, formal). Used for placing on a surface, setting something down, arranging, switching on the television, setting the table. Pôr a mesa. Pôr a televisão. Pôr o livro na estante.
• meter — to put in, to insert, to fit inside (colloquial, very common, always suggests movement into or inside). Meter a roupa na máquina. Meter as mãos nos bolsos. Meter um bocado de açúcar no café.

When the container is implicit (into a pocket, into a bag, into a machine, into a drawer), meter is the most natural verb. When you are placing something on a flat surface or arranging something, pôr wins.

Meter-se — to get involved, to intrude, to meddle

The reflexive meter-se is one of the workhorses of everyday European Portuguese. Its meanings cluster around getting into something (a place, a situation, a fight, a career, a relationship, someone else's business).

• meter-se em (+ noun) — to get into (a situation, a mess, trouble, a career, a fight): meter-se em sarilhos (get into trouble), meter-se em política (get into politics), meter-se na vida dos outros (meddle in other people's business).
• meter-se com (+ person) — to mess with, provoke, bother: não te metas comigo (don't mess with me).
• meter-se a (+ infinitive) — to take it upon oneself to do something, often unwisely: meteu-se a arranjar o carro sozinho (he took it upon himself to fix the car alone).

Meter medo — idiom for scary

Meter medo (literally "to put fear") means to be frightening or scary. You meet this idiom everywhere: in horror films, in children's stories, in complaints about traffic.

You can also say meter impressão (to be unsettling), meter nojo (to be disgusting), meter pena (to be pitiful). This meter + emotion noun construction is highly productive.

Key idioms

• meter os pés pelas mãos — to mess up badly, to trip over oneself (literally "to put one's feet through one's hands")
• meter o nariz onde não é chamado — to stick one's nose where it doesn't belong
• meter uma cunha — to pull strings (informal, to ask a favour through a contact)
• meter a roupa a lavar — to put the laundry in the wash
• meter-se na cama — to get into bed
• meter-se ao caminho — to set off, hit the road
• meter o dedo na ferida — to touch a sore spot, to bring up something sensitive

Example sentences in context

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

• Meter is fully regular throughout: a textbook -er verb with no irregular forms and a regular past participle metido.
• In European Portuguese, meter is the everyday verb for putting something inside something. Pôr is broader and more neutral; meter is narrower and suggests movement into a space or container.
• The reflexive meter-se is extremely common: meter-se em for situations and places, meter-se com for people, meter-se a for taking on an action.
• The idiom meter medo ("be scary") is the normal way to describe anything frightening — never fazer medo.
• When in doubt in daily speech, meter is rarely wrong. It is more natural than pôr for almost any "put something inside" context.
• Watch your pronoun/verb agreement in the negative imperative: não te metas (tu), não se meta (você). Don't mix them.