Tomar (To Take) — Full Conjugation

Tomar is a fully regular -ar verb that does an enormous amount of work in European Portuguese. English translates it with many different verbs depending on context — take, have, drink, catch, pay, make, look after — but Portuguese keeps one verb and changes the object. You tomas um café (have a coffee), tomas o autocarro (catch the bus), tomas uma decisão (make a decision), tomas conta dos miúdos (look after the kids), tomas banho (take a bath), and tomas o comprimido às oito (take the pill at eight).

The verb itself is grammatically easy — no stem changes, no spelling quirks, no irregular forms. The challenge is lexical: learning which noun pairs with tomar rather than with ter, levar, or pegar em. This page covers every conjugated form, then walks through the high-frequency collocations with notes on where English speakers reach for the wrong verb.

Header

Present indicative — presente do indicativo

Imperfect indicative — pretérito imperfeito

Preterite indicative — pretérito perfeito simples

Note the acute accent on the first-person plural tomámos, which distinguishes it in writing from the present tomamos.

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

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

Present perfect — pretérito perfeito composto

Repeated or ongoing recent action. Tenho tomado muito café ultimamente. = I've been drinking a lot of coffee lately.

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

Common collocations with tomar

Consumption — drinks, meals, medicines

Transport — catching a bus, metro, train

Tomar is the EP verb for boarding public transport. Apanhar (to catch) is a common synonym, but tomar sits slightly higher in register and is common in signs, schedules, and formal speech.

Routine actions

Decisions, notes, attention

Taking care of — tomar conta de

Tomar vs levar vs pegar em — the big three

This is where English speakers most often trip up. All three can be translated as take in certain contexts, but they do not overlap in Portuguese.

The underlying logic: tomar is what you do once the thing is "in your possession" (you are consuming it, using it, deciding about it). Levar is movement toward a destination. Pegar em is the physical act of lifting something into your hand.

Notice how English uses take twice in that sentence; Portuguese uses three different verbs.

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

• Tomar is a fully regular -ar verb. The main challenge is lexical, not morphological: knowing which nouns it pairs with.
• In EP, tomar is the default verb for consumption (drinks, meals, medicines), routines (banho, pequeno-almoço), public transport (tomar o autocarro), and abstract "taking" (decisions, notes, attention, care).
• The preterite first-person plural is written with an acute accent: tomámos.
• Tomar ≠ levar ≠ pegar em. If you are moving something to a destination, use levar. If you are physically lifting something, use pegar em. Otherwise, tomar.
• Tomar conta de alguém / de algo always takes the preposition de, never para.