Infinitive After Other Verbs | Portuguese (Portugal) Grammar

When one Portuguese verb is followed by another, the second verb is almost always in the infinitive. This is the single most common pattern in Portuguese syntax, and it appears from the first week of learning: quero comer ("I want to eat"), posso ajudar ("I can help"), gosto de ler ("I like to read"), começou a chover ("it started to rain"). Learning which verbs take which linkers — direct infinitive, a + infinitive, de + infinitive, or para + infinitive — is a lot of what A1 and A2 grammar is about.

This page maps out the five main groups of verbs that take an infinitive complement: modals (direct infinitive), aspectual verbs (with a linking preposition), causatives (which license a new subject), perception verbs (which take an accusative subject and a bare infinitive), and volition verbs (which block the bare personal infinitive and force que + subjunctive when subjects differ). Each group has its own subject-identity rules and its own quirks.

Modals: direct infinitive, no preposition

The modal verbs — poder, dever, querer, saber, preferir, costumar, ousar — take an infinitive complement directly, with no linking preposition. The subject of the modal and the subject of the infinitive are always the same.

Posso ajudar-te com isso.

I can help you with that.

Deves falar com ele antes de tomares uma decisão.

You should talk to him before making a decision.

Quero sair cedo amanhã de manhã.

I want to leave early tomorrow morning.

Sabes cozinhar aquele prato que a avó fazia?

Do you know how to make that dish Grandma used to make?

Prefiro ficar em casa esta noite.

I'd rather stay home tonight.

Costumo acordar às sete durante a semana.

I usually wake up at seven during the week.

The list of true modals in European Portuguese:

Verb	Meaning	Example
poder	can, to be able to	Posso entrar?
dever	should, ought to; to have to	Devo estudar mais.
querer	to want to	Quero viajar.
saber	to know how to	Sei nadar.
preferir	to prefer	Prefiro café.
costumar	to usually do	Costumo correr ao domingo.
ousar	to dare to	Não ousei dizer nada.
tentar	to try to	Tentei abrir a porta.
conseguir	to manage to, to be able to	Consegui acabar o relatório.

With modals, the infinitive always stays bare — never inflected. Posso eu fazer is ungrammatical except in emphatic or contrastive contexts; the natural form is posso fazer. This is covered in detail on the impersonal vs personal infinitive page.

❌ Podemos ajudarmos-te.

Ungrammatical — modals take bare infinitives; the personal inflection -mos on the infinitive is not licensed here.

✅ Podemos ajudar-te.

We can help you.

Aspectual verbs: preposition + infinitive

Aspectual verbs describe the phase or progress of an action — starting, continuing, stopping, returning to do, having just done. They differ from modals in one crucial respect: they almost all require a linking preposition (a or de) before the infinitive.

Começar a, continuar a, voltar a, pôr-se a

These mark inception or resumption of action. The preposition is a.

Comecei a aprender português no ano passado.

I started learning Portuguese last year.

Continuas a trabalhar no mesmo sítio?

Are you still working at the same place?

Voltei a fumar depois de dois anos sem.

I started smoking again after two years without.

A miúda pôs-se a chorar quando viu a injeção.

The little girl started crying when she saw the syringe.

Pôr-se a + infinitive is a colloquial variant that conveys an abrupt or sudden start — "to get down to," "to burst into."

Deixar de, acabar de, parar de, desistir de

These mark cessation, completion, or abandonment. The preposition is de.

Deixei de beber café há três meses.

I stopped drinking coffee three months ago.

Acabei de almoçar — posso ligar-te mais tarde?

I've just had lunch — can I call you later?

Para de falar comigo assim!

Stop talking to me like that!

Desistimos de ir à praia por causa da chuva.

We gave up on going to the beach because of the rain.

Acabar de + infinitive is particularly important: it means "to have just done," marking a very recent completed action. Acabei de chegar = "I just got here." The tense of acabar can shift (tinha acabado de chegar = "I had just arrived"), and the meaning tracks accordingly.

Haver de, ter de, ter que

These are deontic/futurive constructions. Ter de + infinitive is the everyday "have to" in European Portuguese; haver de + infinitive expresses determination or expected future action.

Tenho de comprar pão para o jantar.

I have to buy bread for dinner.

Hei de visitar-te quando for ao Porto.

I'll be sure to visit you when I go to Porto.

Tens que me explicar isto outra vez.

You've got to explain this to me again. (ter que — slightly more emphatic than ter de)

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European Portuguese prefers ter de + infinitive ("have to") in neutral contexts; ter que + infinitive exists and is also correct, but carries a slight emphatic or obligational flavor. Both are widely used. Brazilian Portuguese favors ter que. The distinction is subtle and no learner needs to agonize over it.

Estar a + infinitive

The flagship aspectual construction of European Portuguese: estar a + infinitive expresses ongoing action ("to be doing X"). This is the PT-PT equivalent of Brazilian Portuguese's estar + gerund (estar fazendo).

Estou a ler um livro fantástico sobre Fernando Pessoa.

I'm reading a fantastic book about Fernando Pessoa.

O que é que estás a fazer aí no jardim?

What are you doing there in the garden?

Eles estavam a conversar quando cheguei.

They were talking when I arrived.

See the periphrastic constructions pages for the full account of estar a and its siblings (andar a, vir a, ir a).

Causative verbs: deixar, mandar, fazer

Causative verbs describe one person making, letting, or ordering another to do something. Portuguese has three main causatives: deixar ("to let, allow"), mandar ("to order, have done"), and fazer ("to make, cause"). These behave differently from modals in one huge way: they license a new subject in the infinitive clause.

The idiomatic deixar cair

Before the main pattern, one fixed expression is worth flagging: deixar cair ("to drop"). Here deixar is the causative and cair is the infinitive, and the grammatical subject of cair is whatever is dropped — but the whole thing has lexicalized into a single idiom meaning "to drop."

Deixei cair o copo.

I dropped the glass. (literally: I let the glass fall)

In the normal causative pattern — which is the usual case — the causative introduces someone else's action, and that other subject appears as a pronoun or noun phrase.

Different subject: accusative object + bare infinitive

The most common causative frame: the caused-person appears as a direct object pronoun, and the infinitive stays bare.

Deixa-o entrar — é um amigo meu.

Let him in — he's a friend of mine.

A professora mandou-nos sair cedo hoje.

The teacher had us leave early today.

O bebé faz-me rir todos os dias.

The baby makes me laugh every day.

Não me deixaram falar.

They didn't let me speak.

The caused-person is an object pronoun (o, a, me, nos, os, as), and the infinitive is not inflected — it stays bare. The reason: the subject of the infinitive is already syntactically present (as an object), so there is no new subject to mark.

Different subject expressed as a full noun phrase

When the caused-person is a full noun phrase rather than a pronoun, Portuguese still often uses the bare infinitive:

Deixei as crianças ver televisão até mais tarde.

I let the kids watch TV until later.

Mandei o empregado trazer a conta.

I had the waiter bring the bill.

O pai fez o miúdo pedir desculpa.

The dad made the kid apologize.

However, European Portuguese also accepts a personal-infinitive version in these cases, especially when the subject is plural and the speaker wants to emphasize that new subject:

Mandei-os sair.

I ordered them to leave. (bare infinitive — standard causative)

Mandei-os saírem.

I ordered them to leave. (personal infinitive — same meaning, slightly more explicit)

Both sentences are grammatical and mean the same thing. The bare-infinitive version is slightly more concise and more frequent; the personal-infinitive version adds a subtle emphasis on the subject of the infinitive. Native speakers switch between them without thinking.

A professora deixou-nos sair cedo.

The teacher let us leave early. (standard)

A professora deixou-nos sairmos cedo.

The teacher let us leave early. (also accepted, slightly emphatic)

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The safe, always-correct pattern for causatives is object pronoun + bare infinitive (deixa-o entrar, mandou-os sair, fez-me rir). The personal-infinitive variant (mandou-os saírem) is also accepted, but start with the bare version — it is what you will hear most often.

Perception verbs: ver, ouvir, sentir

Perception verbs — ver ("to see"), ouvir ("to hear"), sentir ("to feel") — behave exactly like causatives in their infinitival syntax. The perceived person or thing appears as an accusative object, and the infinitive stays bare.

Vi-o sair do escritório às cinco.

I saw him leave the office at five.

Ouvi-os falar sobre a viagem.

I heard them talking about the trip.

Senti o coração bater com força.

I felt my heart beating hard.

Ouvimos o vizinho tocar piano todas as noites.

We hear the neighbor play the piano every night.

As with causatives, European Portuguese tolerates a personal-infinitive variant when the subject is plural and emphasized:

Vi os miúdos jogar à bola no parque.

I saw the kids playing ball in the park. (bare — more common)

Vi os miúdos jogarem à bola no parque.

I saw the kids playing ball in the park. (personal infinitive — also accepted)

The core rule remains: perception verbs take an object-plus-bare-infinitive, not a que-clause and not a gerund. Compare English "I saw him leaving" (gerund) vs Portuguese vi-o sair (infinitive). Portuguese does not use the gerund here at all.

❌ Vi que ele saiu do escritório.

Grammatical but different meaning — this means 'I saw that he left' (reported/inferred), not 'I saw him leave' (direct perception).

✅ Vi-o sair do escritório.

I saw him leave the office. (direct perception)

Volition verbs: the line between infinitive and subjunctive

Verbs of volition, desire, and request are where Portuguese draws its most important infinitival line. The strict volition verbs — querer, desejar, preferir — behave like modals with same-subject infinitives:

Quero ir ao cinema esta noite.

I want to go to the cinema tonight. (same subject — I want, I go)

Preferes ficar em casa?

Would you rather stay home? (same subject)

But with different subjects, these verbs do not license a bare personal infinitive. They require que + subjunctive:

Quero que vás ao supermercado.

I want you to go to the supermarket. (que + present subjunctive)

Prefiro que fiques aqui comigo.

I'd rather you stay here with me.

Desejo que tenham um bom feriado.

I wish you all a good holiday.

You cannot say quero tu ires ao supermercado or prefiro tu ficares aqui. The volition verbs querer, desejar, preferir block the personal infinitive entirely when the subject shifts. This is an important boundary: learners often try to stretch the personal infinitive into this territory, and it does not work.

❌ Quero nós sairmos agora.

Ungrammatical — querer does not take a bare personal infinitive with a subject change.

✅ Quero que saiamos agora.

I want us to leave now.

✅ Queremos sair agora.

We want to leave now. (same subject — bare infinitive)

Pedir: the flexible volition verb

Pedir ("to ask, to request") is the one volition verb that breaks the pattern. It readily accepts pedir para + (personal) infinitive alongside pedir que + subjunctive:

Pedi-lhe para chegar a horas.

I asked him to arrive on time.

Pedi aos miúdos para arrumarem o quarto.

I asked the kids to tidy their room. (personal infinitive)

Pedi que me dessem uma resposta rápida.

I asked them to give me a quick answer. (que + imperfect subjunctive)

Both structures are everyday European Portuguese. Pedir is more flexible than querer, desejar, preferir in this respect.

Emotion verbs: both structures work

Verbs of emotion — lamentar ("to regret"), ter pena (de) ("to be sorry"), ter medo (de) ("to be afraid"), adorar ("to love"), odiar ("to hate") — accept both the personal infinitive (often with a preposition) and que + subjunctive when subjects differ.

Lamento teres perdido o comboio.

I'm sorry you missed the train. (personal infinitive — natural, common)

Lamento que tenhas perdido o comboio.

I'm sorry you missed the train. (que + perfect subjunctive — equally natural)

Tenho medo de eles chegarem tarde.

I'm afraid they'll arrive late. (de + personal infinitive)

Tenho pena de não poderes vir.

I'm sorry you can't come.

For the full account of which verb classes block which infinitives, see the personal infinitive vs regular infinitive page.

Summary: the decision tree

Here is the big picture for "one verb followed by another":

Same subject, main verb is a modal → bare infinitive, no preposition. Quero sair. Posso ajudar. Sei nadar.
Same subject, main verb is aspectual → preposition + bare infinitive. Comecei a estudar. Deixei de fumar. Acabei de chegar.
Different subject, causative or perception verb → accusative object + bare infinitive. Deixa-o entrar. Vi-os sair. (Personal infinitive variants are also accepted but less common.)
Different subject, strict volition verb (querer, desejar, preferir) → que + subjunctive. Quero que saias.
Different subject, flexible volition verb (pedir) or emotion verb → para / de + (personal) infinitive OR que + subjunctive. Pedi-lhe para sair. Lamento teres saído.
Different subject, preposition + infinitive construction → personal infinitive. Para tu saíres. Sem eles saberem. (Covered on the infinitive after prepositions page.)

Learning when to reach for each of these is the arc of Portuguese verb syntax from A1 (modals) through A2 (aspectual verbs) into B1 (personal infinitive) and B2 (the full subjunctive vs infinitive contrast).

Comparison with English and Spanish

English uses a mix of infinitives ("want to go, hope to succeed"), gerunds ("enjoy reading, stop smoking"), and that-clauses ("want that he go," which sounds archaic). Portuguese uses the infinitive in almost every case where English uses to, and also in most cases where English uses the gerund.

English	Portuguese
I want to eat.	Quero comer.
I like reading.	Gosto de ler.
I enjoy cooking.	Gosto de cozinhar.
I started studying.	Comecei a estudar.
I stopped smoking.	Deixei de fumar.
I heard them talking.	Ouvi-os falar.
I want you to go.	Quero que vás. (no infinitive possible)
I asked him to leave.	Pedi-lhe para sair. / Pedi que saísse.

Spanish is very close to Portuguese on most of these, with the critical difference that Spanish has no personal infinitive. The pedir and emotion-verb flexibility is shared; the absolute block on quero tu fazeres is a Portuguese idiosyncrasy that Spanish does not have (because Spanish simply does not have the personal infinitive to block in the first place).

Common Mistakes

❌ Quero que eu saia cedo.

Unusual — if the subjects match, use the bare infinitive, not que + subjunctive.

✅ Quero sair cedo.

I want to leave early.

When the subject of the main verb and the subordinate verb are the same, use the bare infinitive. Que + subjunctive is only for subject changes.

❌ Posso a entrar?

Incorrect — poder takes the direct infinitive, no preposition.

✅ Posso entrar?

May I come in?

The modals poder, dever, querer, saber, preferir, costumar take a direct infinitive without any preposition. Inserting a, de, que produces ungrammatical sentences.

❌ Comecei estudar português.

Incorrect — começar requires a before an infinitive.

✅ Comecei a estudar português.

I started studying Portuguese.

Aspectual começar, continuar, voltar, pôr-se all take a. The preposition is not optional.

❌ Vi-o que saiu do escritório.

Incorrect — perception verbs with a direct perceived action take an accusative object + bare infinitive, not a que-clause.

✅ Vi-o sair do escritório.

I saw him leave the office.

Ver, ouvir, sentir + direct perception = object pronoun + bare infinitive. A que-clause with a conjugated verb would mean "I saw that he left" (inferred or reported), which is a different construction.

❌ Deixa ele entrar.

Brazilian Portuguese — in European Portuguese the object pronoun is obligatory and attaches to the verb.

✅ Deixa-o entrar.

Let him in. (standard PT-PT)

European Portuguese uses the enclitic object pronoun -o, -a, -os, -as with causatives and perception verbs. The free-standing nominative-like ele, ela, eles, elas after a verb is a hallmark of Brazilian Portuguese; in European Portuguese it sounds non-native.

Key takeaways

Most verb-plus-verb constructions in Portuguese use an infinitive as the second verb.
Modals (poder, dever, querer, saber, preferir, costumar) take the infinitive directly, no preposition, with the same subject.
Aspectual verbs add a preposition: a (começar a, continuar a, voltar a) or de (deixar de, acabar de, parar de).
Causative and perception verbs (deixar, mandar, fazer, ver, ouvir, sentir) take an object-plus-bare-infinitive pattern. Personal-infinitive variants exist and are accepted.
Strict volition verbs (querer, desejar, preferir) require que + subjunctive when the subject changes — no bare personal infinitive allowed.
Pedir and emotion verbs (lamentar, ter pena, ter medo) are flexible and accept both personal infinitive and que + subjunctive.
After prepositions in general, the infinitive inflects when the subject shifts — see infinitive after prepositions for the full treatment.