Voltar a + Infinitive — Do Again

English has two ways to say that an action is repeated: the prefix re- (rewrite, revisit) and the adverb again (do it again). European Portuguese has a productive verbal construction that covers both and is the default way speakers talk about repetition: voltar a + infinitive. Literally "to return to doing," it packages the idea of repeating, redoing, or resuming an action into the single auxiliary voltar.

You will hear this construction constantly. "Read it again" is volta a ler. "I saw him again" is voltei a vê-lo. "Don't do that again" is não voltes a fazer isso. If you are going to sound natural in European Portuguese, voltar a + infinitive has to become automatic.

Conjugation of voltar

Voltar is a regular -ar verb. The only wrinkle in its conjugation is that the stem vowel is the open -o- (pronounced like English "awe" rather than "oh") in the stressed singular forms of the present and the subjunctive.

The construction: voltar a + infinitive

The formula is invariant: conjugated form of voltar + the preposition a + the infinitive of the main verb.

The semantic effect is crisp: the action happens once more. Whatever the main verb denotes, that event is repeated — a second time, or a third, or recurrently.

Two flavours of repetition

Voltar a + infinitive captures two overlapping ideas that English separates:

Simple repetition — "do again"

A single additional instance of the action.

Resumption — "go back to doing"

Returning to an activity after an interruption, sometimes a long one.

Context tells you which reading is active. With a punctual verb and no time gap implied (volta a dizer isso), you get "say that again." With an interval of interruption implied (voltou a jogar ténis depois da operação), you get "went back to."

Voltar a vs repetir

Portuguese does have a direct verb repetir (to repeat), but it is not used the way English speakers might expect.

• Repetir is typically transitive, taking a direct object that is a thing: a word, a line, a question, a dose. Repete o que eu disser (Repeat what I say). O professor teve de repetir a pergunta (The teacher had to repeat the question).
• Voltar a + infinitive is the way to say "do the action again" — where action is a verb, not a noun.

If you try to say "he repeated to ask," repetiu a perguntar, you produce something ungrammatical. The construction simply does not work in Portuguese; the "repeat the verb" function belongs to voltar a. Learn them as complementary tools: repetir takes nouns, voltar a takes verbs.

Voltar a vs outra vez / de novo

Portuguese also has the adverbs outra vez and de novo, both meaning "again." You can use either with a conjugated verb:

All three are grammatical and idiomatic. Is there a difference?

• Voltar a + infinitive is the most structurally integrated — the repetition is built into the verbal phrase itself. It tends to be preferred when the repetition is the main point of the sentence, when you are emphasizing the redoing.
• Outra vez and de novo are adverbs attached to a normal clause. They add the idea of repetition without restructuring the verb phrase.

In practice, speakers mix them freely and you will often hear all three in a single conversation. A common redundant but idiomatic combination is voltar a + infinitive + outra vez:

This doubling is not "wrong" in speech — it is a stylistic intensifier, somewhere between "again" and "ever again."

Voltar a with negation — "never again"

One of the most common frames is the negative: não voltar a + infinitive = "not do again," nunca mais voltar a + infinitive = "never again."

This is a natural register — a promise, a resolution, a warning. You will hear it in films, read it in novels, and use it in your own speech once you internalize it.

Voltar a vs deixar de — opposite poles

Two periphrastic constructions sit in a kind of semantic opposition:

• Deixar de + infinitive = to stop doing, to quit.
• Voltar a + infinitive = to start doing again, to resume.

A common narrative arc in Portuguese conversation goes: deixei de X, depois voltei a X — "I stopped X, then I started X again." See Deixar de + Infinitive for the full treatment of the "stopping" construction.

Clitics with voltar a + infinitive

Clitic pronouns can attach to either voltar or the infinitive, following EP clitic placement rules. In affirmative main clauses, enclisis to the infinitive is the standard:

Note the mutation: ver + -o → vê-lo; ver + -os → vê-los; ver + -a → vê-la; ver + -as → vê-las. The final -r of the infinitive drops and an l- is added to the clitic; the stem vowel keeps its stress, written with a circumflex on ê or ô (closed vowel) and with an acute on á (open vowel, e.g. dá-lo, amá-lo). This is the standard EP rule for clitics o/a/os/as attaching to infinitives ending in -r, -s, or -z.

With negation, certain adverbs (já, sempre, nunca), or subordinating conjunctions, the clitic climbs to the left of voltar (proclisis):

Voltar without a + infinitive — a different verb

Be careful: voltar is not only an auxiliary. It is also a full lexical verb meaning "to return, to come/go back." When voltar takes anything other than a + infinitive, it is the lexical verb, not the periphrastic construction. (For "turn left/right" in directions, EP uses virar — vira à esquerda — not voltar.)

The periphrastic repetition construction requires the full pattern: voltar + a + infinitive. Without the infinitive, you are just using voltar as a main verb of motion.

Common mistakes

Do not drop the a. Voltar + bare infinitive is ungrammatical in this sense. (Unlike costumar, which takes the bare infinitive — these are the two periphrastic verbs most easily confused in linker choice.)

Use voltar a + infinitive when the "again" attaches to a verb; reserve repetir for direct-object noun complements.

The a stays whatever the tense of voltar. Present, preterite, future, imperfect, subjunctive — all require voltar a + infinitive.

Do not stack voltar a with repetir. Pick one.

Two errors in one: the imperative morphology (não voltas is indicative, not the negative imperative) and the missing a. Negative commands with tu use the present subjunctive — voltes — and the construction still needs a.

Key takeaways

• Voltar a + infinitive is the default European Portuguese way to say "do again" or "return to doing."
• The preposition a is mandatory — voltar a fazer, never voltar fazer.
• Covers both simple repetition ("say it again") and resumption after a gap ("went back to playing tennis").
• Sits in complementary distribution with repetir (which takes noun objects) and overlaps with the adverbs outra vez and de novo (which are stylistically lighter).
• In EP, note the acute accent on voltámos (preterite "we did again") vs voltamos (present "we do again"). The 1990 Accord preserved this distinction.
• Especially useful in negative frames: não voltar a, nunca mais voltar a = "not again," "never again."
• Pairs naturally with its opposite, deixar de + infinitive ("stop doing"), in narratives of quitting and resuming.