Servir (To Serve) — Full Conjugation

Servir means to serve — food at a restaurant, wine to a guest, a customer at a shop, or a country as a soldier. It also carries the common secondary sense of to be useful for, to work for a purpose (as in isto não serve = this isn't useful / this won't do), and in its reflexive form servir-se de it means to help oneself to (food, coffee) or to make use of (a tool, an opportunity).

Grammatically, servir is a third-conjugation (-ir) verb with a classic e → i stem change — but one more restricted than its Spanish cousin. In Portuguese, the change surfaces only in the 1sg present (sirvo) and all forms of the present subjunctive (sirva, sirvas...), which are built from that 1sg. Elsewhere — including tu serves, ele serve, eles servem, the preterite, the imperfect, the future, the conditional, and the imperfect subjunctive — the stem stays serv- with e. This pattern is shared with pedir, vestir, mentir, seguir, sentir, despedir, and most other -ir verbs with a root vowel e.

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Present indicative — presente do indicativo

Only the eu form shows the e → i change in the present indicative. Even though tu serves, ele serve, and eles servem are also stem-stressed (the stress falls on the -er- of the stem), the vowel stays e — unlike in Spanish, where sirves / sirve / sirven all take the change. Portuguese reserves the i for exactly two positions: 1sg present (sirvo) and the entire present subjunctive (built from that 1sg).

Imperfect indicative — pretérito imperfeito

Regular throughout; the stem stays serv-.

Preterite indicative — pretérito perfeito simples

Fully regular, following the -ir pattern.

As with other -ir verbs, the nós form servimos is identical in the present and preterite. Context disambiguates.

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

Literary; in speech use the compound tinha servido.

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

Present perfect — pretérito perfeito composto

Remember: this tense describes a recurring or continuing action up to now, not a single completed past event. Tenho servido mesas nesta pizaria há seis meses = I have been waiting tables at this pizzeria for six months.

Simple future — futuro do indicativo simples

Future perfect — futuro perfeito

Conditional — condicional

Conditional perfect — condicional composto

Present subjunctive — presente do conjuntivo

Built from the eu form sirvo: drop the -o and add the subjunctive endings. All six forms carry the e → i change.

Imperfect subjunctive — imperfeito do conjuntivo

Built from the -ram of the preterite: serviram → servisse-. No stem change here.

Future subjunctive — futuro do conjuntivo

No stem change; identical to the personal infinitive.

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:

Notice the split: tu serve (same as the present indicative third-singular — no stem change), but você sirva (same as the subjunctive — with the change). This reflects the general rule that the tu imperative is drawn from the indicative while você / nós / vocês imperatives are drawn from the subjunctive.

Negative (all from the subjunctive — so all with the change):

Personal infinitive — infinitivo pessoal

Compound personal infinitive — infinitivo pessoal composto

Usage patterns

Servir appears in several common constructions:

• servir + direct object: to serve (food, drinks, a customer). O empregado serviu-nos o vinho. (The waiter served us the wine.)
• servir para + infinitive: to be useful for (doing something). Este copo serve para beber vinho. (This glass is for drinking wine. / This glass is used for wine.)
• servir de + noun: to serve as (a substitute or stand-in). A caixa serviu de mesa improvisada. (The box served as an improvised table.)
• servir-se de + noun: to help oneself to; to make use of. Serve-te do queijo, está óptimo. (Help yourself to the cheese, it's great.) Serviu-se da situação para escapar. (He made use of the situation to escape.)
• servir (sem objeto): to be useful, to fit, to do the job. Esta camisa já não me serve. (This shirt doesn't fit me any more.) Isto não serve — preciso de outro. (This won't do — I need another.)

Example sentences in context

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

• Servir is a third-conjugation (-ir) verb with an e → i stem change in stressed-stem forms: the eu form of the present indicative (sirvo) and all forms of the present subjunctive (sirva, sirvas, sirva, sirvamos, sirvais, sirvam).
• All other tenses — preterite, imperfect, future, conditional, imperfect subjunctive, future subjunctive — keep the stem serv- with e.
• The tu affirmative imperative is serve (no change), but the tu negative is não sirvas (with change). This is the general pattern of Portuguese imperatives, not a quirk of servir.
• Servir para = to be useful for (a purpose); servir de = to serve as (a stand-in); servir-se de = to help oneself to / to make use of.
• The past participle is fully regular: servido. No surprises in compound tenses.