Present Indicative of Fazer and Dizer | Portuguese (Portugal) Grammar

The verbs fazer (to do / to make) and dizer (to say / to tell) are two of the most useful verbs in Portuguese -- and they share a distinctive -zer pattern. In both verbs, the eu form is the most irregular, while the remaining forms follow a semi-regular pattern. Because they behave so similarly, learning them together makes the irregularities easier to remember.

Fazer -- conjugation

Person	Form	English
eu	faço	I do / I make
tu	fazes	you do / you make
ele / ela / você	faz	he/she does; you do
nós	fazemos	we do / we make
(vós)	(fazeis)	(you all do)
eles / elas / vocês	fazem	they do; you all do

Only the eu form is truly irregular: the stem changes from faz- to faç- with a cedilla. The tu, nós, and eles forms keep the regular faz- stem and add standard -er verb endings. Note that faz (3rd person singular) carries no accent -- it is a single syllable and needs none.

Dizer -- conjugation

Person	Form	English
eu	digo	I say / I tell
tu	dizes	you say / you tell
ele / ela / você	diz	he/she says; you say
nós	dizemos	we say / we tell
(vós)	(dizeis)	(you all say)
eles / elas / vocês	dizem	they say; you all say

Again, the eu form departs the most from the infinitive: digo replaces the diz- stem entirely. The 3rd person singular diz drops the -er ending, just as faz does. The remaining forms are built on diz- with regular endings.

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Both faz and diz are single-syllable words with no written accent. A common mistake is to write fáz or díz -- resist the urge. Portuguese only marks accents when the stress falls on an unexpected syllable, and one-syllable words do not need them.

The -zer family

Fazer and dizer belong to a small family of -zer verbs that share the same irregularity pattern. The third member is trazer (to bring):

Person	Fazer	Dizer	Trazer
eu	faço	digo	trago
tu	fazes	dizes	trazes
ele / ela / você	faz	diz	traz
nós	fazemos	dizemos	trazemos
eles / elas / vocês	fazem	dizem	trazem

The pattern is clear: all three have an irregular eu form and a short, accentless 3rd person singular (faz, diz, traz). Compound verbs built on these roots follow exactly the same conjugation: desfazer (to undo) becomes eu desfaço, refazer (to redo) becomes eu refaço, and contradizer (to contradict) becomes eu contradigo.

Fazer -- common uses

Doing and making

The most basic meaning of fazer covers both "to do" and "to make."

O que fazes?

What are you doing?

Faço o jantar todos os dias.

I make dinner every day.

Weather expressions

Fazer is the weather verb in Portuguese. It is used impersonally in the 3rd person singular.

Faz frio em janeiro.

It's cold in January.

Faz sol hoje, mas amanhã faz mau tempo.

It's sunny today, but tomorrow the weather will be bad.

Other common weather expressions: Faz calor (it's hot), Faz bom tempo (the weather is nice), Faz vento (it's windy).

Time elapsed

Fazer can express how long ago something happened or how long a situation has been going on, using the pattern faz + time period + que + clause.

Faz dois anos que trabalho nesta empresa.

It's been two years that I've been working at this company.

In European Portuguese, however, the equivalent construction with há (from haver) is far more common in everyday speech: Há dois anos que trabalho nesta empresa. Both are correct, but faz tempo que has a slightly more Brazilian ring. When you hear a Portuguese speaker in Lisbon or Porto, há is the default; reserve faz for written or emphatic contexts.

Dizer -- common uses

Saying and telling

Ele diz que vem amanhã.

He says he's coming tomorrow.

O que dizes? Não ouvi.

What did you say? I didn't hear.

Quer dizer -- "it means"

The expression quer dizer (literally "wants to say") is used constantly in everyday Portuguese to ask or explain what something means.

O que quer dizer esta palavra?

What does this word mean?

Diz-se -- "it is said" / "people say"

The reflexive diz-se creates an impersonal construction meaning "it is said" or "people say."

Diz-se que vai chover no fim de semana.

They say it's going to rain at the weekend.

Como se diz...? -- "How do you say...?"

This is one of the most practical phrases for a language learner.

Como se diz 'thank you' em português?

How do you say 'thank you' in Portuguese?

Fazer vs Spanish hacer

For learners who know Spanish, fazer maps closely to hacer. The weather expressions work the same way (faz frio = hace frío), and both verbs cover "to do" and "to make." The key form differences: Portuguese 3rd person singular is faz (monosyllabic, no accent), while Spanish is hace (disyllabic). The eu forms also differ: Portuguese faço (with cedilla) vs Spanish hago.

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If you are coming from Spanish, watch out for the eu forms. Spanish hago and digo both end in -go, but in Portuguese only digo keeps that pattern -- fazer becomes faço (not fago). Let the cedilla remind you that fazer takes its own path.

Common mistakes

1. Forgetting the cedilla on faço. The cedilla in faço is not optional -- without it, the c before o would be pronounced /k/ instead of /s/. Always write faço, never faco.

2. Adding an accent to faz or diz. These are monosyllabic words and carry no written accent in Portuguese. Writing fáz or díz is a spelling error.

3. Using faz or diz for eu. The 3rd person forms faz and diz cannot double as eu forms. "I do" is eu faço, not eu faz. "I say" is eu digo, not eu diz.

4. Confusing dizer with falar. Both translate loosely as "to say" or "to talk," but they are not interchangeable. Dizer means to say specific words or to tell someone something: Ele diz a verdade (He tells the truth). Falar means to speak or to talk in general: Ela fala português (She speaks Portuguese). Use dizer when there is a message; use falar when there is a conversation or a language.