Rir (To Laugh) — Full Conjugation

Rir means to laugh. It is a short, common verb — you will hear it in everyday conversation, in jokes, in children's books, and in the expression rir à gargalhada (laugh out loud). It is irregular, but in a narrow and manageable way: its irregularity is concentrated in the present indicative (specifically the stem vowel i) and a few derived forms. Once you learn that pattern, the rest follows predictably.

Two points are worth memorising right away:

1. When rir targets a specific thing or person — when you laugh at something — it must be used reflexively: rir-se de alguém/algo. Plain rir de (without the reflexive pronoun) is felt as incomplete or incorrect by European Portuguese speakers.
2. The monosyllabic infinitive rir and the 1sg preterite / 3sg present ri can look deceptive — several forms are identical-looking but distinguished by context (and by the first-person accented rio in the present).

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Present indicative — presente do indicativo

This is where rir shows its clearest irregularity: the 1sg is rio (with the vowel -i- kept before -o), and the rest of the paradigm uses ri- directly.

A regular -ir verb in the 3pl would give -em appended to the stem (e.g. part-em). With rir, the monosyllabic stem ri- takes an explicit glide letter e to form riem (two syllables: ri-em). The same happens in sorriem (they smile).

Imperfect indicative — pretérito imperfeito

Note the acute accent on ríamos and ríeis — needed to mark the stressed i that would otherwise merge into a diphthong with the following a/e. The other four forms (ria, rias, ria, riam) leave the i unaccented because the stress on -a is already captured by the regular paroxytone pattern.

Preterite indicative — pretérito perfeito simples

Built transparently on the stem ri-. Note: the 1sg ri (I laughed) is identical to the 3sg present ri (he/she laughs); context resolves this ambiguity.

The 1pl rimos is identical in the present and preterite — again, context disambiguates.

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 (futuro do pretérito)

Conditional perfect — condicional composto

Present subjunctive — presente do conjuntivo

Note the 1pl and 2pl without acute — in riamos and riais the stress falls naturally on the a, so no accent is needed.

The present subjunctive forms ria, rias, ria, riam are identical in spelling to the imperfect indicative forms. In practice there is almost no ambiguity: the imperfect indicative appears in narrative past contexts, the present subjunctive appears after triggers like espero que, é possível que, talvez.

Imperfect subjunctive — imperfeito do conjuntivo

Note the acute on the í of ríssemos and rísseis.

Future subjunctive — futuro do conjuntivo

For most verbs, the future subjunctive is identical in spelling to the personal infinitive (both use the infinitive stem + personal endings). With rir, this gives a striking table in which the 1sg and 3sg are spelled exactly like the infinitive — rir.

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 (identical to the present subjunctive with não):

With the reflexive sense rir-se, the imperative and its pronoun combine as: ri-te, ria-se, riam-se.

Personal infinitive — infinitivo pessoal

Compound personal infinitive — infinitivo pessoal composto

Usage

Rir — laughing in general

Used without a pronoun and without a target, rir means simply "to laugh." No preposition, no reflexive.

Rir-se de — laughing at someone or something

When the laughter has a target, European Portuguese speakers use the reflexive rir-se plus de. This is the normal form for expressing laughter directed at something or someone.

This is a real difference from Brazilian Portuguese, where rir de alguém (without the reflexive) is much more common.

Rir à gargalhada / rir às gargalhadas — to laugh out loud

A fixed idiomatic expression for loud, hearty laughter.

Fazer rir — to make someone laugh

Fazer rir is the everyday way to say "to be funny" or "to make laugh." The person who laughs is expressed with a direct object pronoun.

Morrer de rir — "to die laughing"

Another fixed expression; the colloquial equivalent of English "I'm dying of laughter."

Sorrir — to smile

The compound sorrir (sor- + rir) conjugates identically to rir. Eu sorrio, tu sorris, ela sorri, nós sorrimos, eles sorriem. Everything you learn about rir applies directly to sorrir.

Related nouns and adjective

• riso (m.) — laugh, laughter (as an individual act or sound)
• risada (f.) — burst of laughter; laugh (more colloquial)
• gargalhada (f.) — a hearty laugh
• riso fácil — easygoing, cheerful (of a person)
• risonho — smiling, cheerful

Example sentences in context

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

• Rir is irregular. Memorise the present: rio, ris, ri, rimos, riem.
• For laughing at someone or something, use the reflexive rir-se de.
• Plain rir (no reflexive, no target) is fine for general laughter: rir faz bem.
• 1sg preterite ri is identical in spelling to 3sg present ri — context disambiguates.
• The compound sorrir (to smile) conjugates identically.
• Common fixed expressions: rir à gargalhada (laugh heartily), fazer rir (to make laugh), morrer de rir (to die laughing).
• Watch the accents: ríamos, ríssemos carry the acute to preserve the stressed hiatus.