Past Participle: Irregular Forms | Portuguese (Portugal) Grammar

The regular Portuguese past participle is boringly predictable — -ar becomes -ado, -er and -ir become -ido. The irregulars are where the work sits. This page collects every irregular past participle that a learner is likely to meet, grouped by source so you can see the patterns (because the list isn't random — there are clusters). These forms are used identically to regular participles: they combine with ter for compound tenses, with ser for passive voice, and with estar for resultative states. Only the surface form is unpredictable.

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The irregular list is finite. There are under twenty genuinely irregular past participles, plus their compounds (everything from pôr — dispor, propor, supor — inherits the same participle pattern). Learn them once and you have them for life.

The core irregulars

These are the high-frequency irregulars you must know cold. Every Portuguese speaker produces all of these hundreds of times a week.

Infinitive	Meaning	Irregular participle
fazer	to do, to make	feito
dizer	to say, to tell	dito
ver	to see	visto
escrever	to write	escrito
abrir	to open	aberto
cobrir	to cover	coberto
descobrir	to discover, to uncover	descoberto
pôr	to put, to place	posto
vir	to come	vindo

O que é que tens feito ultimamente?

What have you been up to lately?

Tenho-lhe dito a mesma coisa há anos.

I've been telling him the same thing for years.

Já viste o novo filme do Almodóvar?

Have you seen the new Almodóvar film?

Ela tinha escrito o relatório antes do prazo.

She had written the report before the deadline.

Quem deixou a janela aberta?

Who left the window open?

Ainda não tinha descoberto que a mãe andava doente.

He hadn't yet discovered that his mother had been ill.

Onde é que puseste as chaves?

Where did you put the keys?

Ela tem vindo ao café todas as manhãs.

She's been coming to the café every morning.

The -pôr family

All verbs built on pôr (to put) inherit its irregular participle posto. The prefix attaches, and the -posto ending is preserved across every compound.

Infinitive	Meaning	Participle
pôr	to put	posto
compor	to compose	composto
dispor	to dispose, to arrange	disposto
expor	to expose, to display	exposto
impor	to impose	imposto
opor	to oppose	oposto
propor	to propose	proposto
supor	to suppose	suposto
repor	to replace, put back	reposto
depor	to depose, to testify	deposto
pressupor	to presuppose	pressuposto
sobrepor	to superimpose	sobreposto
transpor	to transpose, to cross	transposto

Os livros estão dispostos por ordem alfabética.

The books are arranged in alphabetical order.

Tenho proposto várias soluções mas ninguém me ouve.

I've been proposing various solutions but no one listens to me.

Ele tinha composto a sinfonia antes dos trinta anos.

He had composed the symphony before he was thirty.

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The noun imposto ("tax") is the same word as the past participle of impor — something imposed. Suposto ("alleged", "supposed") works the same way. Many Portuguese nouns and adjectives are frozen past participles of -pôr verbs.

The -cobrir family

Like pôr, cobrir hands its irregular participle coberto down to every derived verb.

Infinitive	Meaning	Participle
cobrir	to cover	coberto
descobrir	to discover, to uncover	descoberto
encobrir	to cover up, to conceal	encoberto
recobrir	to cover over, to recover (a surface)	recoberto

A mesa estava coberta de livros e papéis.

The table was covered with books and papers.

A verdade acabou por ser descoberta.

The truth ended up being uncovered.

The -escrever family

Escrever yields escrito, and every prefixed form follows.

Infinitive	Meaning	Participle
escrever	to write	escrito
descrever	to describe	descrito
inscrever	to enrol, to register	inscrito
subscrever	to subscribe, to endorse	subscrito
transcrever	to transcribe	transcrito
prescrever	to prescribe	prescrito
circunscrever	to circumscribe	circunscrito

Já me inscrevi no curso de cozinha.

I've already signed up for the cooking course.

A paisagem é descrita em pormenor no segundo capítulo.

The landscape is described in detail in the second chapter.

The -dizer family

Dizer gives dito, and its compounds follow.

Infinitive	Meaning	Participle
dizer	to say, to tell	dito
desdizer	to take back, to contradict	desdito
bendizer	to bless	bendito (adj.) / bendizido (verbal)
maldizer	to curse, to speak ill of	maldito (adj.) / maldizido (verbal)
predizer	to predict	predito

Note that bendizer and maldizer have split into two forms: the adjectival bendito / maldito (used with ser/estar or as an adjective: a bendita chuva, "the blessed rain" — often ironic!) and the verbal bendizido / maldizido (used in compound tenses with ter). This is a double-participle pattern — see the double participles page.

Sempre te disse que era má ideia — agora está dito.

I always told you it was a bad idea — now it's been said.

The -fazer family

Fazer gives feito.

Infinitive	Meaning	Participle
fazer	to do, to make	feito
desfazer	to undo	desfeito
refazer	to redo	refeito
satisfazer	to satisfy	satisfeito
contrafazer	to counterfeit	contrafeito

Estou muito satisfeito com o resultado.

I'm very satisfied with the result.

Tive de refazer o trabalho do princípio.

I had to redo the work from the start.

The -ver family

Ver gives visto. Compounds follow, with one quirk: prover (to provide) has two possible participles.

Infinitive	Meaning	Participle
ver	to see	visto
rever	to see again, to review	revisto
prever	to foresee, to predict	previsto
antever	to foresee	antevisto
entrever	to glimpse	entrevisto
prover	to provide	provido (also: provisto)

Tinha previsto este problema desde o início.

I had foreseen this problem from the start.

Ainda não revi o documento que me enviaste.

I still haven't reviewed the document you sent me.

Vir and its homograph trap

Vir has the participle vindo — identical in form to the gerund vindo (from the verb vir, "coming"). Context disambiguates them completely, but the visual overlap can rattle learners at first.

Tenho vindo a Lisboa todas as semanas.

I've been coming to Lisbon every week. (past participle after ter)

Ele veio a correr, vindo diretamente do trabalho.

He came running, coming straight from work. (gerund — adverbial clause)

In the first sentence, vindo is the past participle combining with tenho for the compound tense. In the second, vindo is the gerund opening an adverbial phrase. Same letters, different grammatical work.

Infinitive	Meaning	Participle
vir	to come	vindo
convir	to be suitable, to agree	convindo
intervir	to intervene	intervindo
provir	to come from, to stem from	provindo
advir	to result, to come about	advindo
sobrevir	to supervene, to ensue	sobrevindo

A polícia tem intervindo em vários protestos.

The police have been intervening in various protests.

Trazer: the trazido / trago question

Trazer is a notorious case, and worth treating carefully. The standard modern participle is trazido — the regular form, used with ter in compound tenses and with ser in the passive:

Tenho trazido o almoço de casa todos os dias.

I've been bringing lunch from home every day.

O pacote foi trazido esta manhã pelo estafeta.

The package was brought this morning by the courier.

You may see trago as a participle form in older Portuguese, poetry, religious texts ("o nome de Deus seja trago em nossos corações"), and occasionally in northern dialectal speech. In modern standard European Portuguese, trago functions as the first-person singular present indicative of trazer (eu trago = "I bring"), not as a past participle. Producing "tenho trago" sounds archaic, dialectal, or simply wrong to most speakers today.

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Keep it simple: say trazido for the participle. If you encounter trago functioning as a participle in an old poem or a religious hymn, recognize it, but do not imitate it in your own writing or speech.

The full reference list

Here is the entire set of irregular past participles worth knowing, collected in one table for reference. Verbs in the same family (all -pôr verbs, all -cobrir verbs, etc.) are grouped together.

Verb	Participle	Verb	Participle
fazer	feito	pôr	posto
desfazer	desfeito	compor	composto
refazer	refeito	dispor	disposto
satisfazer	satisfeito	expor	exposto
dizer	dito	impor	imposto
desdizer	desdito	opor	oposto
predizer	predito	propor	proposto
ver	visto	supor	suposto
rever	revisto	repor	reposto
prever	previsto	depor	deposto
escrever	escrito	transpor	transposto
descrever	descrito	vir	vindo
inscrever	inscrito	convir	convindo
subscrever	subscrito	intervir	intervindo
transcrever	transcrito	provir	provindo
abrir	aberto	advir	advindo
cobrir	coberto	trazer	trazido (standard)
descobrir	descoberto	bendizer	bendito (adj.) / bendizido (verbal)
encobrir	encoberto	maldizer	maldito (adj.) / maldizido (verbal)

Worked examples across compound tenses

Tenho feito exercício todos os dias desde janeiro.

I've been exercising every day since January.

Se tivesse visto o que tu viste, teria ficado em choque.

If I had seen what you saw, I would have been in shock.

Até ao fim do mês, terei escrito três artigos.

By the end of the month, I will have written three articles.

Ele já tinha posto a mesa quando a Ana chegou.

He had already set the table when Ana arrived.

Não creio que o tenham descoberto ainda.

I don't think they've discovered it yet.

Assim que tivermos composto a equipa, começamos o projeto.

As soon as we've put together the team, we'll start the project.

As adjectives

Several irregular participles have a parallel life as adjectives, often detached from any compound tense. They agree in gender and number when used this way.

Ando muito cansado, tenho andado muito ocupado estes dias.

I'm very tired, I've been very busy these days.

Aquela loja está sempre aberta aos domingos.

That shop is always open on Sundays.

As portas ficam fechadas depois das vinte e duas horas.

The doors stay closed after ten p.m.

O suposto autor do crime foi depois ilibado.

The supposed perpetrator of the crime was later cleared.

The adjectival use takes normal adjective agreement: uma porta aberta, dois livros escritos, as janelas cobertas. That's covered on the agreement page.

Common mistakes

❌ Tenho fazido muito trabalho esta semana.

Incorrect — 'fazer' has the irregular participle 'feito', not the regularized 'fazido'.

✅ Tenho feito muito trabalho esta semana.

I've been doing a lot of work this week.

The regularized fazido, vido, escrevido, abrido, ponido are classic learner errors. They feel logical — regular rule applied — but every one is wrong.

❌ Já tinha vido quando tu chegaste.

Incorrect — the participle of 'vir' is 'vindo', not 'vido'.

✅ Já tinha vindo quando tu chegaste.

He had already come when you arrived.

❌ Quem abriu a porta? — Ninguém, ela estava abrida.

Incorrect — 'abrir' has the participle 'aberto', so the feminine adjectival form is 'aberta'.

✅ Quem abriu a porta? — Ninguém, ela estava aberta.

Who opened the door? — No one, it was open.

❌ Tenho propondo uma nova ideia há semanas.

Incorrect — 'propondo' is the gerund; you want the past participle 'proposto' here.

✅ Tenho proposto uma nova ideia há semanas.

I've been proposing a new idea for weeks.

Gerund-vs-participle confusion is especially easy with -pôr verbs, because the participle (posto, proposto) and the gerund (pondo, propondo) look quite different from each other but both derive from the same verb.

❌ Ainda não tinha escrevido a carta.

Incorrect — 'escrever' has the irregular participle 'escrito'.

✅ Ainda não tinha escrito a carta.

He still hadn't written the letter.

❌ A casa foi coberta de neve — estava toda coberto.

Incorrect in the second clause — used adjectivally with feminine subject 'casa', it must be 'coberta'.

✅ A casa foi coberta de neve — estava toda coberta.

The house was covered with snow — it was all covered.

The participle in foi coberta is part of the passive voice and agrees with the subject; the participle in estava coberta is adjectival and also agrees. Both need feminine singular. See agreement for the full rule.

Key takeaways

The irregular list is short: feito, dito, visto, escrito, aberto, coberto, descoberto, posto, vindo plus their compounded derivatives.
Entire families inherit from one head verb: pôr → posto family, cobrir → coberto family, escrever → escrito family, ver → visto family, vir → vindo family, fazer → feito family, dizer → dito family.
Trazer in modern EP takes the regular trazido, not trago. The form trago lives only in fixed/archaic/literary contexts.
Vir has a participle vindo identical in form to its own gerund — context disambiguates.
Some verbs carry two participles — one for compound tenses, one for adjectival/passive use. Those are treated on the double participles page.
Agreement rules are the same as for regular participles: invariant after ter, agreeing with ser/estar and in adjectival use. See agreement.