Preterite: Regular -er and -ir Verbs | Portuguese (Portugal) Grammar

Here is a piece of good news: -er and -ir verbs share the same set of preterite endings. The only variation is the theme vowel -- e for -er verbs, i for -ir verbs -- and even that disappears in the eu form, where both classes end in plain -i. Learn one pattern and you unlock two entire verb classes.

Why they are taught together

With -ar verbs, the preterite endings are unique to that class (-ei, -aste, -ou, -ámos, -aram). The -er and -ir endings, by contrast, run in parallel: -i/-i, -este/-iste, -eu/-iu, -emos/-imos, -eram/-iram. The consonant structure is identical every time. Once you see the pattern, there is nothing extra to memorize for the second class.

The endings side by side

Here are the full conjugations of comer (to eat) and partir (to leave/depart):

Person	comer	partir
eu	comi	parti
tu	comeste	partiste
ele / ela / você	comeu	partiu
nós	comemos	partimos
(vós)	(comestes)	(partistes)
eles / elas / vocês	comeram	partiram

And the endings alone, stripped from the stems:

Person	-er ending	-ir ending
eu	-i	-i
tu	-este	-iste
ele / você	-eu	-iu
nós	-emos	-imos
(vós)	(-estes)	(-istes)
eles / vocês	-eram	-iram

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The eu form is identical for both classes: -i. Comi, bebi, vivi, parti, abri, decidi -- all end the same way. This is the easiest form to remember.

Comi uma sopa e bebi um sumo.

I ate soup and drank a juice.

O comboio partiu às nove em ponto.

The train departed at nine o'clock sharp.

The ambiguity of comemos / partimos

Unlike -ar verbs, where the accent on falámos distinguishes the preterite from the present falamos, the nós forms of -er and -ir verbs are spelled and pronounced exactly the same in both tenses. Comemos means both "we eat" and "we ate." Partimos means both "we leave" and "we left."

Context and time expressions do the disambiguating:

Comemos peixe todas as sextas-feiras.

We eat fish every Friday. (present)

Ontem comemos peixe no restaurante.

Yesterday we ate fish at the restaurant. (preterite)

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When you see ontem, na semana passada, há dois dias, or any past time marker with comemos/partimos, the verb is preterite. Without such a marker, default to present unless the surrounding narrative makes the past reading clear.

Practice with common -er verbs

Infinitive	Meaning	eu	ele/você	eles/vocês
comer	to eat	comi	comeu	comeram
beber	to drink	bebi	bebeu	beberam
viver	to live	vivi	viveu	viveram
escrever	to write	escrevi	escreveu	escreveram
aprender	to learn	aprendi	aprendeu	aprenderam
correr	to run	corri	correu	correram

Vivi em Coimbra durante três anos.

I lived in Coimbra for three years.

Ela escreveu uma carta ao diretor.

She wrote a letter to the director.

Aprendemos muito neste curso.

We learned a lot in this course.

Practice with common -ir verbs

O avião partiu com atraso.

The plane departed late.

Abri a janela porque estava calor.

I opened the window because it was hot.

Eles decidiram ficar mais um dia.

They decided to stay one more day.

Assistimos ao jogo em casa do Pedro.

We watched the match at Pedro's house.

Note that dormir (to sleep) is regular in the preterite -- dormi, dormiste, dormiu, dormimos, dormiram -- even though it undergoes a stem change in the present indicative (durmo). The preterite stem stays dorm- throughout.

The -eu ending: pronunciation

In European Portuguese, the third-person ending -eu is pronounced as a falling diphthong: comeu sounds like /ku'mew/, bebeu like /bi'bew/. It rhymes with deu (gave) and meu (my). Do not confuse it with the standalone pronoun eu (/ew/), which in connected speech is often reduced. When you hear that crisp falling -ew at the end of a verb, you know it is third-person preterite.

Common mistakes

1. Mixing -ar endings with -er/-ir endings. The most frequent error is applying the -ar third-person ending -ou to -er verbs -- saying comou instead of comeu, or bebou instead of bebeu. Remember: -ou belongs exclusively to -ar verbs. For -er verbs the ending is -eu, and for -ir verbs it is -iu.

2. Forgetting the present/preterite ambiguity. Because comemos and partimos look identical in both tenses, learners sometimes omit the time expression that would make the meaning clear. When narrating past events, include a time marker or make the past context explicit.

3. Assuming dormir is irregular in the preterite. Because dormir changes its stem in the present (eu durmo), learners expect an irregularity in the past. It does not happen -- dormi, dormiste, dormiu follow the standard -ir pattern perfectly.

For the -ar verb preterite pattern, see Preterite: Regular -ar Verbs. For irregular preterite forms, see Preterite: Irregular ser/ir. For the complete preterite picture, see Preterite Overview.