Vender (To Sell) — Full Conjugation

Vender means to sell — and is the direct counterpart of comprar (to buy). It is a fully regular second-conjugation (-er) verb, which makes it an excellent template for the entire -er class. The only thing worth flagging in advance is a feature shared with all regular -er and -ir verbs: the first-person plural form vendemos is identical in the present and in the preterite. Portuguese, unlike Spanish, has no accent-based way to distinguish them — context does the whole job.

Beyond its core meaning, vender carries a surprising range of metaphorical senses in Portuguese, from vender-se (to sell out morally) to the colloquial vender caro (to play hard to get), to the idiom vender como pão quente (to sell like hot bread — what English calls "selling like hotcakes").

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Present indicative — presente do indicativo

Note a useful homograph: vendo is both the 1sg present of vender (eu vendo = "I sell") and the gerund of ver ("seeing"), since ver forms its gerund as vendo. In EP the gerund of ver is rarely used — progressive forms go through estar a + infinitive (estou a ver, not estou vendo) — so in practice the two almost never collide. You will, however, see Vendo on handwritten "For Sale" signs in Portuguese windows and classified ads, short for vendo esta casa / este carro. The gerund of vender itself is vendendo.

Imperfect indicative — pretérito imperfeito

Antigamente, vendia-se peixe ali na esquina. = Fish used to be sold there on the corner.

Preterite indicative — pretérito perfeito simples

Important: vendemos is the same in the present and the preterite. Unlike -ar verbs (which write comprámos for the preterite and compramos for the present), -er verbs have no orthographic distinction. Ontem vendemos a casa (Yesterday we sold the house) and Todos os dias vendemos bolos (Every day we sell cakes) use the same form. Time adverbs or context tell you the tense.

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

Literary synthetic pluperfect.

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

Present perfect — pretérito perfeito composto

Describes repeated or ongoing action up to now. Tenho vendido bem este mês = I've been selling well this month.

Simple future — futuro do indicativo simples

Future perfect — futuro perfeito

Conditional — condicional

Venderia a casa se tivesse outro sítio para ir. = I would sell the house if I had another place to go.

Conditional perfect — condicional composto

Present subjunctive — presente do conjuntivo

Note: the form venda is also the noun a venda (the sale). Listeners rely on context and syntactic position (verb after que; noun with an article or preposition) to tell them apart.

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

Usage patterns

1. Vender + direct object + a + person (sell something to someone):

The thing is the direct object; the buyer is introduced by a. With pronouns, indirect-object clitics (me, te, lhe, nos, lhes) work naturally.

2. Vender por + price (sell for a price):

Portuguese uses por (not para) to introduce the price.

3. Vender-se (be on sale; sell out morally):

The reflexive form can be passive impersonal (something is sold) or figurative (someone sells out).

4. Vender como pão quente (sell like hotcakes):

A fully idiomatic comparison — "sell like hot bread" — used for anything selling very quickly.

5. Vender caro / barato (sell high / low, or play hard to get):

Literal in commerce (vender caro = to sell at a high price) but also figurative: vender-se caro = to play hard to get, especially in romantic or professional contexts.

Example sentences in context

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

• Vender is a fully regular -er verb. No stem changes, no spelling quirks.
• The nós form vendemos is identical in present and preterite. Unlike -ar verbs, -er verbs get no written accent to distinguish them — context does everything.
• The price is introduced by por; the buyer by a. Never use para for the price.
• Vender-se is both a passive construction (aqui vende-se pão) and a figurative one (ele vendeu-se).
• Learn the idioms vender como pão quente and vender a alma ao diabo as fixed units.