Verbs Ending in -ear

Verbs whose infinitive ends in -ear form a small but high-frequency class in European Portuguese. Their conjugation is almost entirely regular — they follow the standard -ar verb endings everywhere — except in one respect: whenever the stress falls on the stem, an i is inserted between the stem-final e and the ending. This gives you forms like passeio, passeias, passeia, passeiam from passear, and the nós form stays plain passeamos because its stress falls on the ending, not the stem.

The rule in one sentence

If the ending is stressed, write e (e.g. passeamos, passeava, passeei). If the stem is stressed, insert an i and write ei (e.g. passeio, passeias, passeia, passeiam). This is purely an orthographic reflection of how the language pronounces an open, stressed e that would otherwise sit immediately before a vocalic ending.

Passear (to stroll / to go for a walk) — full paradigm

Notice how the nós form drops the inserted i because the stress moves to the ending (passe-AH-mos). The same thing happens in the present subjunctive: passeemos (we stroll) with no i, because the stress sits on the -e- of the ending rather than on the stem.

Nomear (to name / to appoint)

Recear (to fear)

Recear is a common verb in careful written Portuguese and in formal speech. In everyday conversation, speakers more often use ter medo (to be afraid) — but any formal register, newspaper column or novel will use recear naturally.

A fuller list — and one near-miss

Important distinction (register): the modern verb for "to greet" is saudar, which is -ar (not -ear) and therefore does not take an inserted i: saúdo, saúdas, saúda, saudamos, saúdam. Note the acute accent on the u in the boot forms to mark the hiatus with the preceding a.

Verbs that look like -ear but are not

Do not confuse -ear verbs with superficially similar endings:

• -ejar verbs (e.g. invejar to envy, almejar to long for, despejar to pour out): these are plain -ar verbs with no inserted i. Invejo, invejas, inveja, invejamos, invejam.
• -iar verbs: these are the subject of the next page. A small set does insert an e before the ending in stressed forms (odeio, medeio), but most are regular. Learn that class separately.
• -air verbs (e.g. cair, sair): these are -ir verbs with their own hiatus-marked paradigm. See verbs ending in -air.

The diagnostic is strict: the infinitive must end in -ear, with an e immediately before the -ar. If it ends in -ejar, -iar, -air, -uar, or anything else, it does not follow this pattern.

Notice how invejo has no i inserted — that is because invejar is -ejar (plain -ar), not -ear.

Preterite, imperfect, and other tenses

Outside the present indicative and subjunctive, -ear verbs behave like any regular -ar verb. The preterite is fully regular:

Note the acute accent on passeámos in European Portuguese. This is one of the most distinctive PT-PT spellings — it marks the stressed á in the 1st-person plural preterite, distinguishing it from the present passeamos (which is stressed on the same syllable but spelled without an accent under the 1990 Orthographic Accord). Brazilian Portuguese drops this diacritic altogether.

The imperfect, future, and conditional all take plain e throughout, since their endings always carry stress on a different vowel:

• Imperfect: passeava, passeavas, passeava, passeávamos, passeavam.
• Future: passearei, passearás, passeará, passearemos, passearão.
• Conditional: passearia, passearias, passearia, passearíamos, passeariam.

Past participle and gerund

Both are regular. The past participle is passeado (and nomeado, receado, ceado, etc.), and the gerund is passeando. The inserted i does not appear here because the stress is not on the stem vowel:

(That last example uses passar, not passear. Passeando would be specifically "strolling" rather than just "passing by".)

Spanish comparison

Spanish has a small and almost identical class: verbs in -ear such as pasear, but Spanish does not insert any i — it just uses the regular -ar endings (paseo, paseas, pasea, paseamos, pasean). Portuguese inserts the i because its stressed-stem open e is spelled as a diphthong ei in this position. In other words:

The Portuguese stem looks like it has an extra letter in the boot forms; it does — the i. Spanish speakers cross-learning Portuguese should add this i wherever the stem is stressed and drop it wherever the ending is.

English-speakers' angle

Most English speakers simply need to remember that the spelling changes within a single verb's paradigm, and that the change is driven by where the stress falls. There is no analogue in English, but the concept maps onto the observation that in English we also signal stress phonologically — we just rarely spell it out. Writing passeio versus passeamos is Portuguese's way of telling you "this syllable is stressed" on paper.

Common Mistakes

Key takeaways

• The infinitive must end in -ear specifically (not -iar, not -ejar, not -air).
• Insert an i between the stem e and the ending in all stressed-stem forms (eu, tu, ele, eles of the present indicative and subjunctive).
• Drop the i in the nós forms, because their stress shifts to the ending.
• Outside the present indicative and subjunctive, the verb is a plain -ar verb. The preterite's 1pl (passeámos) takes an acute accent in European Portuguese.
• Spanish does not have the inserted i; Portuguese does. Don't import the Spanish spelling.