Vir (To Come) — Full Conjugation

Vir means to come — to move toward the speaker, toward the place where the conversation is happening, or toward a reference point in the narrative. It is an A1 verb you need from day one (vens comigo? = are you coming with me?), but it is also one of the most irregular verbs in the language. It has a strong preterite, an irregular present with a circumflex accent in the third-person plural (vêm), and — most famously — it collides with ver ("to see") in the future subjunctive and in the past participle / gerund.

This page gives you every conjugated form of vir, with special attention to the forms that learners (and even native speakers writing emails quickly) most often mix up.

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Present indicative — presente do indicativo

Two critical details:

• vem (3rd-singular, no accent) vs. vêm (3rd-plural, with a circumflex over the e). The circumflex is not decoration — it is mandatory and it is the only written distinction between ele vem (he comes) and eles vêm (they come). In speech, EP still distinguishes them by a diphthong in the plural, but in writing the accent is essential.
• nós vimos is the present of vir — but it is also the preterite of ver ("we saw"). Context is your only guide.

Imperfect indicative — pretérito imperfeito

Used for past habits and background. Vinha cá todos os verões = I used to come here every summer.

The nh stem here is distinctive — notice how ver uses vi- (via, vias, via, víamos, viam), while vir uses vinh- (vinha, vinhas, vinha, vínhamos, vinham). This is the best place to keep them straight: if the imperfect has an nh, you are dealing with vir.

Preterite indicative — pretérito perfeito simples

Vir has a strong preterite — the stress falls on the stem in the first and third person singular, and the forms are unpredictable from the infinitive.

The 1st-person singular vim is a single monosyllable with a nasal vowel — one of the very shortest preterites in the language. The 3rd-singular veio (with -io) is irregular: note that it is veio, not veiu. This is a spelling learners consistently get wrong.

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

A literary/formal tense. Same stem as the preterite (vie-):

The 3rd-plural vieram is identical in the preterite and the simple pluperfect.

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

The everyday way to say had come. Imperfect of ter + past participle vindo.

Present perfect — pretérito perfeito composto

Repeated or continuous action up to now. Tens vindo cá muitas vezes ultimamente = you've been coming here a lot lately.

Simple future — futuro do indicativo simples

Here vir is actually regular — it builds on the full infinitive. But notice the collision:

Yes, eu virei means "I will come". It also happens to look like it could come from another verb (virar, to turn) — eu virei (preterite: I turned). Context disambiguates.

Future perfect — futuro perfeito

Will have come. Future of ter + vindo.

Conditional — condicional (futuro do pretérito)

Would come. Regular on the infinitive stem.

Conditional perfect — condicional composto

Would have come. Conditional of ter + vindo.

Present subjunctive — presente do conjuntivo

Built on the eu present stem: venho → venha.

Espero que venhas à festa = I hope you come to the party.

Imperfect subjunctive — imperfeito do conjuntivo

Built on the preterite stem vie-.

Future subjunctive — futuro do conjuntivo

This is the most important table to memorize carefully, because vir and ver collide here.

Note the cruel coincidence: the future subjunctive of ver is eu vir, tu vires, ele vir... — identical in spelling to the infinitive of vir (to come). This is one of the most notorious traps in Portuguese.

• Se eu *vier amanhã = if I come tomorrow (future subjunctive of *vir)
• Se eu *vir o João amanhã = if I see João tomorrow (future subjunctive of *ver)
• Espero poder *vir amanhã = I hope I can come tomorrow (infinitive of *vir)

After se and quando (future possibility), you need the future subjunctive — so it is se eu vier (come) vs. se eu vir (see).

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:

Vem cá! (come here!) is one of the most common commands in the language. The old vós form vinde survives only in religious and literary registers ("Vinde a mim, todos os que estais cansados..." — literary/archaic).

Negative (present subjunctive with não):

Personal infinitive — infinitivo pessoal

Built on the infinitive vir:

Since vir is irregular, the personal infinitive (vir, vires, vir, virmos, virdes, virem) is different from the future subjunctive (vier, vieres, vier, viermos, vierdes, vierem). This is unusual — for regular verbs these two tables coincide. For vir, you must keep them apart.

This is what causes the vir / ver confusion: the personal infinitive of vir (vir, vires, vir...) happens to be spelled the same as the future subjunctive of ver (also vir, vires, vir...).

Compound personal infinitive — infinitivo pessoal composto

Usage and key constructions

Vir is not just "to come" — it is part of many productive Portuguese constructions.

vir a + infinitive — "end up" / "come to"

This is an aspectual construction that expresses an eventual outcome, often unexpected.

vir ter com (alguém) — to go meet someone

A fixed phrase meaning "to come up to / come over to (meet) someone".

vir buscar — to come pick up

Very common in daily speech about transport and childcare.

o ano / mês / sábado que vem — next year / month / Saturday

An idiomatic temporal expression where the present of vir fossilizes into a future reference.

Ir vs vir — direction matters

Unlike English, where "come" and "go" are sometimes interchangeable ("I'll come with you" = "I'll go with you"), European Portuguese is strict about direction:

• ir = movement away from where the speaker is now (or from a third reference point)
• vir = movement toward where the speaker is now (or toward the listener, if calling / writing)

This is a subtle point that confuses English speakers constantly — in English you would say "I'll come" in both halves of that exchange, but Portuguese uses different verbs.

Example sentences in context

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

• Vir is highly irregular: memorize venho, vens, vem, vimos, vindes (archaic), vêm for the present and vim, vieste, veio, viemos, vieram for the preterite.
• The vem / vêm accent distinction is the single most important spelling detail. Plural adds a circumflex.
• The past participle and gerund are both vindo. The same form vindo is also the gerund of ver ("seeing") — a famous coincidence.
• The future subjunctive is vier, vieres, vier, viermos, vierem — NOT vir, vires, vir..., which is the future subjunctive of ver (or the personal infinitive of vir).
• Vir and ir are complementary: vir = toward speaker; ir = away from speaker. English does not maintain this distinction as strictly.
• Productive constructions to know: vir a + inf (end up doing), vir ter com (come meet), vir buscar (come pick up), o ano que vem (next year).