Nascer (To Be Born) — Full Conjugation

Nascer means to be born — and already something unusual is happening: English uses a passive construction (I *was born), but Portuguese uses an active intransitive verb. You don't "get born" in Portuguese; you *nasce. The sentence "I was born in 1990" is simply "Nasci em 1990" — one word, active voice.

Morphologically, nascer is almost a regular -er verb. The only wrinkle is a spelling change inherited from Latin: the c becomes ç before a or o to preserve the "s" sound. That gives us nasço (1sg present), nasça/nasças (present subjunctive), and nasçamos — but nasces, nasce, nascemos keep the c before e.

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Present indicative — presente do indicativo

Used for ongoing or repeated births (e.g., statistics, generalizations), and for natural processes of emergence (plants, stars, ideas). Nascem muitos bebés em maio = many babies are born in May.

The eu form has the spelling change: nasço (not nasco). All other present forms keep the c because they come before e.

Imperfect indicative — pretérito imperfeito

Used for habitual or background descriptions in the past. Antigamente nasciam mais crianças no campo = in the past, more children used to be born in the countryside.

Preterite indicative — pretérito perfeito simples

This is the default tense for birth dates and places. Nasci em 1990, em Coimbra = I was born in 1990, in Coimbra.

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

A literary synthetic form.

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

Present perfect — pretérito perfeito composto

With a singular subject, this compound form is unusual for nascer — you're born only once, so a repeated/continuous reading doesn't apply to an individual. It does work with a collective subject: Têm nascido cada vez menos crianças em Portugal = Fewer and fewer children have been being born in Portugal.

Simple future — futuro do indicativo simples

Future perfect — futuro perfeito

Conditional — condicional

Conditional perfect — condicional composto

Present subjunctive — presente do conjuntivo

All six forms carry the c → ç spelling, because the endings begin with a. Espero que nasça saudável = I hope he/she is born healthy.

Imperfect subjunctive — imperfeito do conjuntivo

Endings start with e, so the plain c is used: nascesse, nascesses, ....

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

Nascer is rarely used as a command to a person (you can't order someone to be born), but the forms are grammatically well-formed and do appear with metaphorical or collective subjects in poetry and slogans.

Affirmative:

Negative:

Personal infinitive — infinitivo pessoal

Compound personal infinitive — infinitivo pessoal composto

Usage — active voice, not passive

This is the single most important thing an English speaker needs to know about nascer: it is active and intransitive, not passive. You do not need ser or any auxiliary.

• I was born in Lisbon. → Nasci em Lisboa. (1 word for "was born")
• She was born in 2005. → Ela nasceu em 2005.
• The twins were born prematurely. → Os gémeos nasceram prematuramente.

Using "fui nascido" is a calque from English and is always wrong in Portuguese. Portuguese treats birth as something the baby does, not something done to it.

Prepositions and typical patterns

• nascer em
  • place / year / month: nasci em Faro, em 1987, em janeiro
• nascer a
  • day: ela nasceu a 14 de agosto (she was born on August 14th)
• nascer de
  • origin/source: nasceu de uma família humilde (she was born into a humble family); esta amizade nasceu de uma coincidência (this friendship arose from a coincidence)
• data de nascimento — date of birth (set phrase on forms)

Nascer also works metaphorically: nasce uma ideia (an idea is born), nasceu o sol (the sun rose), nasce uma flor (a flower is sprouting). In all these, the verb keeps its core sense of coming into being.

Example sentences in context

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

• Nascer means to be born — but grammatically it's an active intransitive verb, never a passive construction.
• To give a birth date or place, use the preterite: nasci em 1990. Not fui nascido.
• The only morphological irregularity is the c → ç spelling before a and o: nasço, nasça, nasças, nasça, nasçamos, nasçam. Before e (as in nasces, nasce, nascemos, nascem) the plain c stays.
• Prepositions to memorize: nascer em (place/year), nascer a (day), nascer de (origin).
• Nascer extends metaphorically to ideas, companies, flowers, the sun — anything coming into being.
• Related form: o nascimento (birth), data de nascimento (date of birth).