The simple past of regular "-er" and "-ir" verbs
To talk about completed past actions with regular -er and -ir verbs (the pretérito perfeito), drop the infinitive ending and add these past tense endings:
| Pronoun | -er endings | Example (receber) | -ir endings | Example (imprimir) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| eu | -i | recebi | -i | imprimi |
| tu | -este | recebeste | -iste | imprimiste |
| ele / ela / você | -eu | recebeu | -iu | imprimiu |
| nós | -emos | recebemos | -imos | imprimimos |
| eles / elas / vocês | -eram | receberam | -iram | imprimiram |
Notice that the eu and eles / elas / vocês endings are exactly the same for both groups.
The nós forms for regular -er and -ir verbs are spelled exactly the same in both the past and present tenses. Look for time markers like ontem (yesterday) or hoje (today) for context.
Here are examples of regular -er verbs in action:
| I received the letter yesterday. | Eu recebi a carta ontem. |
| Who replied to his email? | Quem respondeu ao email dele? |
| Did you answer the telephone in the office? | Tu atendeste o telefone no escritório? |
Examples using regular -ir verbs:
| The director printed this document. | O diretor imprimiu este documento. |
| We discussed an interesting project at the meeting. | Nós discutimos um projeto interessante na reunião. |
You can combine both verb types to describe a sequence of past events:
| I wrote the text and printed the document. | Eu escrevi o texto e imprimi o documento. |
| She opened the email, but did not reply. | Ela abriu o email, mas não respondeu. |
Your questions are stored by us to improve Elon.io
