Preterite of Fazer

The verb fazer (to do, to make) is one of the most common verbs in Portuguese and highly irregular in the preterite. Its stem changes to fiz- or fez-, depending on the person, and the eu form loses its ending entirely -- eu fiz, with no vowel after the z. Because fazer appears constantly in everyday speech, from describing what you did yesterday to talking about the weather, mastering these forms is essential.

Conjugation

This is a "strong" preterite -- the stress falls on the stem rather than the ending in the eu and ele forms. Notice the stem vowel alternation: fiz (with i) for eu, tu, nós, vós, and eles, but fez (with e) for ele/ela/você only. The third-person singular stands alone with its different vowel.

Actions completed in the past

The most basic use of fazer in the preterite -- saying what someone did or made.

Weather in the past

Portuguese uses fazer for weather expressions, just as in the present. In the preterite, it always appears in the third-person singular fez.

This is an impersonal construction -- there is no real subject. The verb stays fixed as fez regardless of what follows.

Time elapsed

The expression fazer + time period describes how long ago something happened. In the preterite, it marks a completed interval.

Like the weather use, this construction is impersonal and always takes fez.

Fiz vs fez -- the critical distinction

The vowel change between fiz (eu) and fez (ele/ela/você) is the only thing separating first person from third person. Confusing them changes who did the action.

In spoken Portuguese, the difference between /i/ and /e/ can be subtle, especially in fast speech. Pay close attention and practise both forms until the distinction is automatic.

Compounds of fazer

Verbs built on fazer follow exactly the same irregular pattern. Learn fiz/fez once and the compounds come free -- just add the prefix.

Fazer in the -zer family

Portuguese has three common verbs ending in -zer -- fazer, dizer, and trazer -- and all three are irregular in the preterite, but each in its own way. Do not assume one pattern fits the others.

Notice that dizer and trazer have identical eu and ele forms (disse/disse, trouxe/trouxe), while fazer is the odd one out with its vowel alternation (fiz/fez). Each verb must be learned individually. See Preterite of Dizer and Preterite of Trazer for details.

Fez vs vez -- a spelling trap

The words fez (he/she did) and vez (time, occasion) look and sound similar but mean entirely different things. In writing, a single letter separates them.

Read that sentence carefully: vez is the noun (this time), fez is the verb (he did). Swapping them produces nonsense.

Fizemos vs fazemos -- preterite vs present

The preterite nós form fizemos ("we did / we made") and the present nós form fazemos ("we do / we make") differ by a single letter in the stem (fiz- vs faz-), but mean completely different things. Because the endings coincide (-emos), the contrast rides entirely on the stem vowel.

The preterite without a written accent

One orthographic detail worth flagging. The third-person singular fez is written without an accent under the 1990 Orthographic Accord. Older texts may show fêz with a circumflex — that spelling is obsolete in modern EP. Today, write fez bare, and rely on context to distinguish it from the noun vez (time, occasion).

Common mistakes

For the full preterite system, see Preterite Overview. For the present-tense forms of this verb, see Present Indicative of Fazer and Dizer. For another strong preterite verb with a similar pattern, see Preterite of Ter.