Serial Verb Constructions

Portuguese loves to string verbs together. Where English reaches for a single verb followed by an infinitive with to (I went to fetch water), Portuguese often produces a cleaner sequence — two verbs side by side, no preposition, no to: ir buscar água, literally "go fetch water." This is one of several closely related constructions that grammarians group together under the label verbal chain or, more technically, serial verb construction. The chain may be made of two verbs, three verbs, or occasionally four, and each link contributes a specific shade of meaning: direction (ir, vir), aspect (andar, ficar, estar a), causation (mandar, fazer), or permission (deixar).

For a learner, these constructions are where Portuguese feels most compact and most idiomatic. Getting them right is the difference between sounding like a translator ("I am going to the shop to buy bread") and sounding like a native speaker (vou ao café buscar pão, literally "I'm going to the café to fetch bread"). This page walks through the major types, shows you how clitics navigate through the chain, and clarifies the sometimes-blurry line between a true serial construction and the verbal periphrases covered in the periphrastic overview.

What counts as a serial verb construction

A serial verb construction (SVC) in Portuguese has three defining features:

1. Two or more verbs act as a single predicate — they share a subject and denote a single complex event.
2. No conjunction and usually no preposition links them (though a few use a or de).
3. Clitic pronouns can float to different positions within the chain, and that floating is a reliable diagnostic that the chain is genuinely functioning as one unit.

Each of those sentences involves two verbs behaving as one. Neither verb can stand alone and give the same meaning: vou alone means "I'm going" (which direction?); buscar alone would be a bare infinitive, which cannot be a predicate by itself. Together they say "I'll go get."

Ir + bare infinitive — going to do

The paradigm case. Ir ("to go") combines with a bare infinitive (no a, no para, no para ir) to mean "go in order to do." The infinitive names the purpose of the going.

This ir is the verb of directed motion, not the auxiliary for the immediate future. The difference matters. Compare:

Context distinguishes the two. If ir is followed by a verb whose action inherently happens in a location — comprar, buscar, ver, beber, comer, falar com — it is almost always serial. If ir is followed by a verb of purely mental or abstract activity, it is auxiliary. See ir + infinitive as future for the future reading.

Common verbs with ir

A short list of the verbs most often serialised with ir:

Vir + bare infinitive — coming to do

Symmetric to ir: vir ("to come") plus a bare infinitive means "come in order to do." The movement is toward the speaker rather than away.

Vir is less aspectually ambiguous than ir: it rarely functions as a pure future auxiliary, so vir + infinitive is almost always genuinely serial.

Andar / ficar / estar + a + infinitive — aspectual chains

These are the workhorses of European Portuguese aspect. Each of them combines with a + infinitive to produce a different aspectual colour.

Estar a + infinitive — the progressive

The progressive. European Portuguese uses estar a + infinitive where Brazilian uses estar + gerund (estar fazendo). It is the continuous present. See progressive with estar and European vs Brazilian progressive.

Andar a + infinitive — iterative / ongoing

Andar a + infinitive suggests a habitual or prolonged activity over a stretch of time, often with a slight connotation of "going around doing" or "being busy with." It is extremely common in European Portuguese; Brazilian tends to use ficar or bare present instead. See andar a + infinitive.

Ficar a + infinitive — to remain doing

Ficar a + infinitive implies that the subject stays in one place or continues an activity over time. It often carries a flavour of "left behind doing" or "stayed doing."

Continuar / começar / acabar — phase aspectuals

Three more verbs operate as aspectual auxiliaries with a + infinitive:

Acabar is special: with de, it means "to have just done" (recent past); with a, it means "to end up doing."

Mandar / fazer + infinitive — causative chains

Portuguese forms causatives by serialising mandar or fazer with a bare infinitive. The subject of the main verb is the causer; the person or thing made to act is a direct object.

Mandar + infinitive — ordering / commissioning

Mandar means "to send" or "to order," and with an infinitive it means "to have someone do something" or "to order someone to do something."

Note how mandar can have two different argument structures: mandei pintar a sala (I had someone paint the living room — no specific doer) vs mandei o pintor pintar a sala (I had the painter paint the living room — specific doer).

Fazer + infinitive — making someone do something

Fazer as a causative is slightly less common than mandar in European Portuguese speech, but still productive.

Fazer com que + subjunctive

For abstract or indirect causation, fazer com que takes the subjunctive:

Deixar + infinitive — permissive chains

The permissive counterpart to fazer. Deixar literally means "to leave," but in a serial chain with an infinitive it means "to let" or "to allow."

The contrast with fazer: fazer is compulsion (you made them do it); deixar is permission (you let them do it). Both take the same syntactic shape.

Clitic placement in serial chains

This is where things get interesting. When a clitic pronoun (me, te, lhe, o, a, nos, vos, os, as, se) attaches to a serial construction, it can land in different positions depending on the chain and on the trigger for proclisis or enclisis. For the full clitic placement rules see clitic placement overview.

Default: enclisis on the main verb or the infinitive

In the absence of a proclisis trigger, the clitic typically attaches to the main (finite) verb or to the infinitive. Both positions are often available.

Climbing: the clitic moves to the finite verb

The phenomenon of a clitic "climbing" from the infinitive up to the finite verb is entirely productive in Portuguese serial chains. Both positions are grammatical; the climbed version is common in speech, the non-climbed in careful writing.

With a contracted clitic: ir dizer-to

When combining an indirect object clitic with a direct object clitic (me + o = mo, te + o = to, lhe + o = lho, etc.), the double clitic usually stays on the infinitive:

Proclisis triggers put the clitic on the finite verb

When there is a proclisis trigger (não, nunca, já, também, who/what/how questions, certain subordinators), the clitic moves in front of the finite verb:

Serial constructions versus periphrases

You may have noticed that many of the constructions on this page (estar a, andar a, ir + infinitive, acabar de) also appear on the periphrastic overview. That is because the line between the two categories is fuzzy. The distinctions linguists draw:

• Verbal periphrases are constructions where the finite verb has lost much of its original meaning and acts like an auxiliary. Vou chover is a periphrasis because ir no longer means "to go"; it is just marking immediate future.
• Serial verb constructions keep both verbs' meanings live. Vou beber um café is serial because ir still means "go" and beber still means "drink."

In practice, the same construction can be at either end of the spectrum depending on the lexical content. Do not over-invest in the boundary; what matters is that you recognise the syntactic shape and can use the clitic placement rules correctly.

Comparison with Spanish

Spanish has parallels but with notable differences.

• Ir a + infinitive vs ir + infinitive: Spanish requires a (voy a buscar pan); European Portuguese omits a for serial motion (vou buscar pão) but keeps a only in certain formal or Brazilian-influenced styles. The preposition-less Portuguese form is one of the most distinctive markers of European Portuguese syntax.
• Estar + gerund vs estar a + infinitive: Spanish uses estar
  • gerund (estoy leyendo); European Portuguese uses estar a
    • infinitive (estou a ler). Brazilian Portuguese sides with Spanish on this one.
• Mandar is causative in both, but Portuguese mandar is considerably more colloquial and widespread in speech than Spanish mandar.

Comparison with English

English strings verbs with to (the infinitive marker) or with conjunctions. Portuguese often drops both.

The English to disappears. The and disappears. The chain becomes a direct verb-to-verb link, which is why Portuguese feels so compact at this level of grammar.

Common mistakes

Mistake 1: Inserting a or para where no preposition is needed.

English-to-Portuguese learners instinctively reach for para because they think of it as "to" (the purpose marker). In this construction, it is wrong.

Mistake 2: Using estar + gerund for progressive.

This is the single most distinctive feature of European Portuguese aspect. Forcing yourself to say estou a + inf instead of estou + ing takes deliberate practice; once it clicks, it stays.

Mistake 3: Leaving the clitic on the infinitive under a proclisis trigger.

The fix: whenever you see não, nunca, já, também, ninguém, or a wh-word, move the clitic in front of the finite verb immediately. Do it as an automatic reflex.

Mistake 4: Confusing serial ir with future ir.

When translating to English, a serial ir can often be rendered "go X," while future ir translates as "will" or "going to." Practice distinguishing the two in context.

Mistake 5: Dropping a from the aspectual chains.

Unlike ir and vir, the aspectual serialisers andar, ficar, continuar, começar, acabar all require a (or, in the case of acabar de, de). Dropping the a produces ungrammatical Portuguese.

Key takeaways

• Ir / vir + bare infinitive for directed motion: vou buscar pão, vem ver.
• Estar a / andar a / ficar a + infinitive for aspect: progressive, iterative, ongoing.
• Mandar / fazer + infinitive for causative: mandei pintar, fez-me rir.
• Deixar + infinitive for permissive: deixa-me ver.
• Clitics can climb to the finite verb or stay on the infinitive — both usually grammatical without a trigger.
• Proclisis triggers (não, nunca, já, wh-words, certain subordinators) force the clitic in front of the finite verb.
• Portuguese drops the to/and that English uses between chained verbs, producing compact, idiomatic constructions.