Second Conjugation: -er Verbs

The -er verbs form the second conjugation in Portuguese. This class is smaller than the -ar group, but it contains many high-frequency verbs you will use from your earliest conversations. The model verb for this class is comer (to eat); once you know its patterns, you can conjugate every regular -er verb the same way.

Common regular -er verbs include: comer (to eat), beber (to drink), viver (to live), correr (to run), escrever (to write), aprender (to learn), vender (to sell), dever (to owe / must), meter (to put in), and responder (to answer).

Present indicative

The present tense is formed by removing -er from the infinitive and adding the endings below.

Preterite (pretérito perfeito simples)

The preterite describes completed past actions. Notice that the nós form — comemos — is identical to the present tense. Context will always make the meaning clear.

Imperfect (pretérito imperfeito)

The imperfect describes habitual or ongoing past actions. The endings are the same for -er and -ir verbs.

Simple pluperfect (pretérito mais-que-perfeito simples)

This tense is mostly literary in modern Portuguese. In speech, the compound form with tinha + past participle is preferred, but you will encounter the simple pluperfect in written texts.

Future indicative (futuro do indicativo)

The future is built on the full infinitive. The endings are the same for all three conjugation classes.

Conditional (condicional)

Also built on the full infinitive, with the same endings as the imperfect of -er/-ir verbs.

Present subjunctive

A key difference from -ar verbs: the present subjunctive of -er verbs uses -a endings, whereas -ar verbs use -e endings. The two classes essentially swap vowels.

Imperfect subjunctive

Formed from the preterite stem. The endings are the same for -er and -ir verbs.

Future subjunctive

Unique to Portuguese among major Romance languages, the future subjunctive appears after conjunctions like quando, se, and assim que. For regular verbs, its forms are identical to the personal infinitive.

Personal infinitive

The personal (inflected) infinitive is another feature unique to Portuguese. For regular -er verbs, the forms are identical to the future subjunctive. The two tenses differ only in usage — the personal infinitive appears after prepositions and in certain subordinate clauses.

The forms are: comer, comeres, comer, comermos, (comerdes), comerem.

Imperative

Non-finite forms

Every -er verb has three non-finite forms: the infinitive (comer), the gerund (comendo), and the past participle (comido).

Note the European Portuguese construction estar a + infinitive for progressive actions, rather than the Brazilian estar + gerund.

Shared endings with -ir verbs

One of the most helpful patterns in Portuguese is that -er and -ir verbs share endings in most tenses — the preterite, imperfect, future subjunctive, personal infinitive, conditional, and future indicative all use the same endings for both classes. The main differences appear in the present indicative (comemos vs partimos) and the present subjunctive (where -ir verbs also use -a endings, just like -er). Mastering the -er patterns therefore gives you a strong head start on -ir verbs as well.