Trazer (To Bring) — Full Conjugation

Trazer is one of the most irregular verbs in Portuguese — and one of the most necessary. It means to bring, in the sense of carrying something or someone toward the place where the speaker is (or is thinking from). Its counterpart levar (to take) means the opposite: carrying away from the speaker, to somewhere else. Getting this directional pair right is essential; misusing them sounds immediately like a learner.

The irregularity of trazer is deep and distributed. It has:

1. A 3sg present that drops the -e (traz, like faz and diz).
2. A strong preterite in -x-: trouxe, trouxeste, trouxe, trouxemos, trouxestes, trouxeram — with a long -x- diphthong that is spelled but pronounced as a closed o.
3. A contracted future and conditional stem — trar-, not trazer- — giving trarei, trarás, trará… and traria, trarias, traria…
4. An imperfect subjunctive and future subjunctive built on the strong preterite stem: trouxesse, trouxer.

Nothing about this is "predictable from the infinitive." You simply have to learn the four stems (traz-, trago/traga-, trouxe-, trar-) and which tenses use which.

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Present indicative — presente do indicativo

The 1sg shows the trag- stem (parallel to digo, faço, caio, traga). The 3sg drops the final -e (parallel to faz, diz). Everything else is built on the regular traz- stem with the standard -er endings.

Imperfect indicative — pretérito imperfeito

Fully regular on the traz- stem.

Preterite indicative — pretérito perfeito simples

The strong preterite in trouxe-. This is the form to memorize: note that 1sg and 3sg are both trouxe (identical, as in all strong preterites — fiz/fez, pus/pôs, quis/quis, disse/disse, and trouxe/trouxe). The x here is pronounced /s/.

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

Built on the troux- stem. Literary/formal.

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

The compound tenses all use the regular past participle trazido — the irregularity is confined to the strong preterite family, not the participle.

Present perfect — pretérito perfeito composto

Simple future — futuro do indicativo simples

Contracted stem trar- (not trazer-). This contraction is shared with only two other verbs: dizer → direi, dirás and fazer → farei, farás. It is a quirk of three very old, very frequent verbs, and you must memorize it.

Future perfect — futuro perfeito

Conditional — condicional

Contracted stem trar- (same as future).

Conditional perfect — condicional composto

Present subjunctive — presente do conjuntivo

Built on the trag- stem, drawn from the 1sg present indicative trago. All six forms share this stem — this is the Portuguese rule for forming the present subjunctive.

Imperfect subjunctive — imperfeito do conjuntivo

Built on the troux- stem.

Future subjunctive — futuro do conjuntivo

Also built on the troux- stem. Crucial for clauses with se (if) and quando (when) referring to future possibilities: quando trouxeres…

Present perfect subjunctive — pretérito perfeito do conjuntivo

Pluperfect subjunctive — pretérito mais-que-perfeito do conjuntivo

Future perfect subjunctive — futuro perfeito do conjuntivo

Imperative — imperativo

The tu affirmative is traz (from the 3sg present). The rest comes from the trag- subjunctive stem.

Affirmative:

Negative:

Personal infinitive — infinitivo pessoal

Built on the regular trazer- stem — the infinitive itself plus personal endings. This is not one of the irregular stems.

Compound personal infinitive — infinitivo pessoal composto

Mesoclisis — clitic pronouns inside the future and conditional

Because the future and conditional derive historically from infinitive + habere, object pronouns are inserted between the infinitive stem and the ending in formal EP. This is called mesoclisis and is famously preserved in European Portuguese (written and formal speech). The infinitive in these constructions is the contracted form trar, not trazer.

When the clitic is o / a / os / as and the future/conditional stem ends in -r (as in trar-), the -r drops and the clitic becomes -lo / -la / -los / -las, with an acute accent on the remaining a of the stem (trar → trá-lo-). Future with mesoclisis:

Conditional with mesoclisis:

With reflexive se and similar clitics (which do not trigger the -r drop), the stem stays as trar-: trar-se-á a questão (the question will be raised — formal/literary). In everyday speech, proclisis (o trarei) appears in all the normal proclisis-triggering environments (negation, subordinators, certain adverbs), and the mesoclitic form is reserved for affirmative main clauses in writing and careful speech.

Usage — direction and idiom

Trazer vs levar: the core directional contrast

This is the single most important pair to get right. English uses bring and take, but often interchangeably in practice; Portuguese enforces the distinction strictly.

• Trazer = carry toward the reference point (usually the speaker).
• Levar = carry away from the reference point, to somewhere else.

If you are at home and you want your friend to come over with a bottle of wine:

If you are leaving a party and a friend asks what you are doing with the leftover cake:

The test: who is where? If the destination is where the speaker is or is speaking from, trazer. If the destination is elsewhere, levar.

Trazer + direct object (literal use)

Trazer vestido / trazer na mala — to have on / to carry

In EP, trazer is also used for clothing you are wearing and items you have with you (where English often uses have on or be wearing):

Trazer à memória — to bring to mind

Trazer notícias — to bring news

Trazer + abstract consequences

Example sentences in context

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

• Trazer has four stems. Memorize them as a group:
  • traz- — regular present (tu, 3pl, nós, vós) and imperfect (trazia, trazias...).
  • trag- — 1sg present (trago), all present subjunctive forms (traga, tragas...), and most affirmative imperatives.
  • troux- — the strong preterite (trouxe), simple pluperfect (trouxera), imperfect subjunctive (trouxesse), and future subjunctive (trouxer).
  • trar- — contracted future (trarei) and conditional (traria).
• The past participle trazido is regular, so all compound tenses use it without surprise.
• The 3sg present drops the final -e: traz. This matches diz and faz — the same three verbs also share the contracted future (trarei, direi, farei).
• The x in trouxe is pronounced /s/, not /ʃ/. Spelling is trouxe, never trousse or trouse.
• Trazer ≠ levar. Use trazer for motion toward the reference point, levar for motion away. English blurs these; Portuguese does not.
• Trazer is also used for clothing/items you have on or with you: o que é que trazes vestido? (what have you got on?).
• Mesoclisis (tra-lo-ei) is alive in formal and written EP; in everyday speech, you will more often hear proclisis (o trarei, o trago) in the appropriate syntactic contexts.