Imperfect Subjunctive — Regular Forms

The imperfect subjunctive of regular verbs is one of the most predictable tenses in the language. Once you have the 3rd person plural preterite of any regular verb, you have the entire imperfect subjunctive paradigm — no new irregularities, no surprise stem changes. This page lays out the full forms for each of the three regular classes, the stress accent rule that learners miss most often, and the spelling-and-pronunciation details that separate a confident B1 writer from a shaky one.

The master recipe

Every imperfect subjunctive in Portuguese — regular and irregular — follows the same three steps:

1. Take the 3rd person plural of the preterite (the eles / elas / vocês form).
2. Drop the ending -ram.
3. Add the imperfect subjunctive endings: -sse, -sses, -sse, -ssemos, -ssem.

The 1st person plural (nós) takes a stress accent on the stem vowel, because the stress shifts back one syllable when you add -ssemos. The accent is acute (´) for a and i stems, and circumflex (^) for e stems where the vowel is closed.

Once you can do this walkthrough, regular verbs are done. The rest of this page shows you the full paradigms and points out the orthographic and pronunciation patterns.

Class 1: -ar verbs (falar, to speak)

Sample regular -ar verbs to try building yourself: chegar (chegaram → chegasse, chegasses, chegasse, chegássemos, chegassem), trabalhar (trabalharam → trabalhasse...), cantar, estudar, viajar, encontrar, morar, passear, jogar, olhar.

Class 2: -er verbs (comer, to eat)

Sample regular -er verbs: beber (beberam → bebesse, bebesses, bebesse, bebêssemos, bebessem), aprender, correr, escrever, vender, viver, atender, depender, prometer, esquecer (with a spelling change — see below).

Why the circumflex on comêssemos?

The nós ending is -ssemos, which shifts the stress back to the stem vowel. Portuguese requires a written accent whenever a word is stressed on the antepenultimate syllable (palavras proparoxítonas). So comêssemos gets an accent on the e. The choice of circumflex (^) rather than acute (´) reflects that the e is a closed vowel (/e/, like the French é), not an open one (/ɛ/). Portuguese orthography distinguishes these systematically.

Compare:

• acute on open vowel: café (open é, /ɛ/), pé, avó
• circumflex on closed vowel: você (closed ê, /e/), mês, avô

In comêssemos, the e is closed, so the accent is circumflex. Same pattern for bebêssemos, vendêssemos, escrevêssemos, corrêssemos.

Class 3: -ir verbs (partir, to leave)

Sample regular -ir verbs: partir, abrir (abriram → abrisse), decidir, assistir, discutir, permitir, proibir, sentir (with vowel alternation in the preterite — see below), sair (saíram → saísse, with the hiatus accent).

Orthographic wrinkles

Regular verbs are "regular" as long as you start from the 3pl preterite. But the 3pl preterite itself sometimes has spelling patterns worth noting, because those patterns carry over into the imperfect subjunctive.

Verbs in -çar, -gar, -car (spelling for sound)

-ar verbs ending in -çar, -gar, -car modify their spelling in the preterite eu form (comecei, cheguei, toquei) to preserve the soft ç/g/k sound. But the 3pl preterite keeps the normal spelling (começaram, chegaram, tocaram), so the imperfect subjunctive is spelled straightforwardly:

• começar → começaram → começasse, começasses, começasse, começássemos, começassem
• chegar → chegaram → chegasse
• tocar → tocaram → tocasse

Verbs with a hiatus (sair, cair, trair)

Verbs with an -air or -uir pattern have a written accent in the 3pl preterite (saíram, caíram, construíram) to mark the stressed i as a separate syllable from the preceding vowel. The accent carries into the imperfect subjunctive and into the nós form:

• sair → saíram → saísse, saísses, saísse, saíssemos, saíssem
• cair → caíram → caísse, caísses, caísse, caíssemos, caíssem

-ir verbs with preterite vowel changes

A handful of -ir verbs have vowel changes in the eu form of the preterite (senti, dormi, subi) but regular -iram in the 3pl. Since the imperfect subjunctive is built from the 3pl, it takes the standard pattern:

• sentir → sentiram → sentisse, sentisses, sentisse, sentíssemos, sentissem
• dormir → dormiram → dormisse, dormisses, dormisse, dormíssemos, dormissem
• subir → subiram → subisse, subisses, subisse, subíssemos, subissem

Verbs ending in -cer and -guer

These -er verbs require a spelling change in the present indicative and present subjunctive (conheço, conheça) to preserve the soft c sound. But the preterite 3pl is spelled normally (conheceram), so the imperfect subjunctive has no special spelling needs:

• conhecer → conheceram → conhecesse, conhecesses, conhecesse, conhecêssemos, conhecessem
• esquecer → esqueceram → esquecesse

A full reference table

Here are ten regular verbs, one from each subgroup, in the full imperfect subjunctive paradigm:

Pronunciation tips

The imperfect subjunctive is one of the most acoustically distinctive tenses in Portuguese. A few pointers:

• The doubled s in -sse, -sses, -ssem is pronounced as a single /s/ sound (unvoiced). Do not add a separate /s/ for each s — the doubling is just an orthographic signal that the s stays unvoiced (otherwise, a single intervocalic s would be voiced to /z/).
• The stress always falls on the syllable immediately before -sse, except in the nós form, where it shifts back one syllable and gets a written accent.
• The nós form is a bit of a mouthful for English speakers. Falássemos is /fɐ.ˈla.sɨ.muʃ/ — five syllables in careful speech. In rapid European Portuguese, the unstressed middle syllables often reduce, and the word can sound like /fɐ.ˈlas.muʃ/. Both are fine.

A quick self-check

Can you build the following on the fly? Cover the right column and try:

A note on pôr and its compounds

The verb pôr (to put) — and its compounds compor, depor, dispor, impor, propor, supor, transpor — does not fit neatly into -ar / -er / -ir. It is treated on the irregular forms page. But for reference: the 3pl preterite is puseram, so the imperfect subjunctive is pusesse, pusesses, pusesse, puséssemos, pusessem. The same recipe applies; pôr just has an unusual stem.

Common Mistakes

The imperfect indicative (falava) and the imperfect subjunctive (falasse) look superficially similar, but they do different jobs. Se with hypothetical meaning always takes the imperfect subjunctive.

After queria que (the polite imperfect of querer), the embedded verb takes the imperfect subjunctive. Chegava is the imperfect indicative; chegasses is what the sentence demands.

The 1pl form always carries an acute accent on the stem vowel for -ar and -ir verbs, and a circumflex for -er verbs with a closed e. Missing this accent is not a minor typo — it is a stress-mark error that changes how the word should be pronounced.

For -er verbs with a closed stem e, the accent on the nós form is circumflex (^), not acute (´). Compare falássemos (acute on a) with escrevêssemos (circumflex on e).

The 3pl ending is -ssem with a final m, not n. Portuguese uses m for a word-final nasalization; this is one of the most systematic spelling patterns in the language.

Key takeaways

• Regular imperfect subjunctives are built from the 3pl preterite, minus -ram, plus -sse, -sses, -sse, -ssemos, -ssem.
• The nós form always carries a stress accent on the preceding vowel: acute for -ar/-ir (falássemos, partíssemos), circumflex for -er with closed e (comêssemos, bebêssemos).
• -er and -ir verbs share the same endings but differ in the stem vowel before the accent (-e- vs -i-).
• Spelling changes that appear in the preterite eu form (comecei, cheguei, saí) either disappear in the 3pl (and thus in the imperfect subjunctive) or carry across naturally (saíssemos).
• If the 3pl preterite is irregular, the imperfect subjunctive inherits that irregularity cleanly — see the irregular forms page.

Next: meet the verbs whose irregular preterites yield irregular imperfect subjunctives on the irregular forms page, or cement the hypothetical pattern on the if-clauses page.