Trabalhar (To Work) — Full Conjugation

Trabalhar is one of the first verbs you will hear in any Portuguese conversation — and not just about jobs. It covers the full English semantic range of to work: doing a job, putting in effort on a task, a machine functioning, an idea being valid. It is also one of the most regular verbs in the language: a textbook first-conjugation (-ar) verb with no stem changes, no spelling quirks, and no irregular forms.

The interesting challenges with trabalhar are not morphological but prepositional. You trabalhas em a place (trabalho em Lisboa), como a profession (trabalho como engenheiro), para an employer (trabalho para a Google), and por conta própria if you are self-employed. Using a or the wrong preposition is one of the most audible "tells" of an English speaker in early Portuguese. This page covers every form and gives you a clear map of the preposition system.

Header

Present indicative — presente do indicativo

Imperfect indicative — pretérito imperfeito

Preterite indicative — pretérito perfeito simples

Note the acute accent on the first-person plural trabalhámos in EP orthography.

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

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

Present perfect — pretérito perfeito composto

Describes repeated or ongoing recent work. Tenho trabalhado muito este mês. = I've been working a lot this month.

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

The preposition system: em, como, para, por, de

English speakers tend to reach for one all-purpose "at/in" when talking about work, but Portuguese uses a carefully split system. Each preposition foregrounds a different aspect of the working relationship.

Trabalhar em + place

Use em to talk about the physical location or the company/institution (treated as a place):

Also with abstract "areas of work":

Trabalhar como + profession

Use como when giving the role or job title, with the noun unarticled:

Trabalhar para + employer/person

Use para when the focus is on whom you work for (your boss, client, or the entity you serve):

Trabalhar por conta própria — self-employed

A fixed expression. Literally "to work on one's own account":

Trabalhar de + profession (informal)

A colloquial alternative to como, especially for casual or temporary jobs:

Dias úteis — working days

Worth knowing as a lexical item: dias úteis means "weekdays / working days" and appears on every opening-hours sign in Portugal.

Example sentences in context

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

• Trabalhar is a fully regular -ar verb with no surprises in its conjugation.
• The preposition system is where English speakers stumble: em
  • place, como
    • profession (unarticled), para
      • employer, por conta própria for self-employment, and the casual de
        • profession.
• Say trabalho em Lisboa (location) but trabalho para uma empresa alemã (employer) — the two can combine: trabalho em Lisboa para uma empresa alemã.
• The preterite first-person plural takes an acute accent: trabalhámos.
• The noun form trabalhador / trabalhadora (worker) is widely used. Dias úteis = weekdays / working days.
• The digraph lh is a single palatal sound, not two segments; trabalhar has three syllables stressed on the last.