Regular -ER Verbs in Portuguese

In Brief

To conjugate a regular Portuguese verb ending in -er in the present tense, remove -er and add -o, -es, -e, -emos, -eis, -em: comer becomes como, comes, come, comemos, comeis, comem. The ending changes according to who performs the action.

Overview

Verbs are words for actions, events, or states, such as “eat,” “happen,” and “live.” The infinitive (the basic dictionary form of a verb) of every verb in this group ends in -er: comer “to eat,” beber “to drink,” escrever “to write,” and viver “to live.”

At A1, the main task is learning their present indicative forms. The present indicative is the ordinary verb form used for facts, habits, and actions happening now. Once you know the six endings, you can use the same pattern with many common verbs.

Portuguese verb endings carry more information than English ones. English usually needs an explicit subject—“I eat,” “we eat”—while Portuguese can often leave the subject pronoun unstated because como and comemos already identify the subject. This makes the endings important both when speaking and when listening.

How It Works

Build the present tense

Start with the infinitive, remove -er, and keep the stem (the part that remains). Then attach the ending for the subject.

• comer → com- + ending
• beber → beb- + ending
• escrever → escrev- + ending
• viver → viv- + ending

Person	Subject	Ending	comer	English
1st person singular	eu	-o	como	I eat
2nd person singular	tu	-es	comes	you eat
3rd person singular	ele / ela / você	-e	come	he / she eats; you eat
1st person plural	nós	-emos	comemos	we eat
2nd person plural	vós	-eis	comeis	you all eat
3rd person plural	eles / elas / vocês	-em	comem	they eat; you all eat

The grammatical “person” simply shows the speaker’s relationship to the subject: first person includes the speaker (eu, nós), second person addresses someone (tu, vós), and third person refers to another person or thing. Portuguese você addresses the listener but takes a third-person form: você come, not você comes. The plural vocês likewise takes comem.

The same endings with other regular verbs

Subject	beber “to drink”	escrever “to write”	viver “to live”
eu	bebo	escrevo	vivo
tu	bebes	escreves	vives
ele / ela / você	bebe	escreve	vive
nós	bebemos	escrevemos	vivemos
vós	bebeis	escreveis	viveis
eles / elas / vocês	bebem	escrevem	vivem

Notice that -emos here is a present-tense ending: vivemos means “we live” or, in the right context, “we are living.” Do not replace it with -imos, which belongs to regular -ir verbs such as partir → partimos.

Subject pronouns can be omitted

A subject is the person or thing that performs the action. Portuguese commonly leaves a subject pronoun out when the verb ending or context makes the subject clear:

• Bebo café de manhã. — “I drink coffee in the morning.”
• Vivemos perto daqui. — “We live near here.”
• Escrevem muito bem. — “They write very well” or “You all write very well,” depending on context.

An explicit pronoun is still useful for contrast or clarity: Eu bebo chá, mas ela bebe café (“I drink tea, but she drinks coffee”). Unlike English, Portuguese does not require eu before every first-person verb.

What the Portuguese present can mean

The simple present is used for several kinds of meaning:

1. Habits and repeated actions: Como fruta todos os dias. — “I eat fruit every day.”
2. Facts and stable situations: A Ana vive em Coimbra. — “Ana lives in Coimbra.”
3. An action happening now, when context makes this natural: O que escreves? — “What are you writing?”
4. A near-future event, usually with a time expression: Amanhã comemos juntos. — “Tomorrow we’re eating together.”

English speakers should not assume that every English “am/is/are + -ing” form requires a special Portuguese form. The simple present can be enough, especially with context. Portuguese also has progressive constructions, discussed below under advanced use.

Negatives and questions

For a negative statement, put não directly before the verb:

• Não bebo leite. — “I don’t drink milk.”
• Eles não vivem aqui. — “They don’t live here.”

Portuguese does not add an equivalent of English “do/does.” Questions often keep the same word order as statements; voice, punctuation, or a question word marks the question:

• Bebes café? — “Do you drink coffee?”
• Onde vivem vocês? — “Where do you live?”
• O que escreve ela? — “What is she writing?”

Examples in Context

Portuguese	English	Note
Eu como pizza.	I eat pizza.	Explicit eu; first-person singular
Tu bebes água.	You drink water.	Informal singular tu
Ela escreve cartas.	She writes letters.	Third-person singular
Nós vivemos em Lisboa.	We live in Lisbon.	First-person plural
Como fruta ao pequeno-almoço.	I eat fruit at breakfast.	Subject pronoun omitted
Você bebe café sem açúcar?	Do you drink coffee without sugar?	Você takes third-person bebe
O Rui vende livros usados.	Rui sells used books.	A noun subject also takes third person
Escrevemos mensagens todos os dias.	We write messages every day.	Habitual action
Vocês vivem perto da estação?	Do you live near the station?	Plural vocês takes vivem
Os meus amigos comem cedo.	My friends eat early.	Plural noun subject
Não compreendo esta palavra.	I don’t understand this word.	Regular compreender in a negative
Recebes muitas mensagens?	Do you receive many messages?	Question without an auxiliary “do”
Ela corre no parque aos domingos.	She runs in the park on Sundays.	Regular correr; repeated action
Amanhã comemos em casa.	Tomorrow we’re eating at home.	Present with near-future meaning
Eu bebo chá, mas eles bebem café.	I drink tea, but they drink coffee.	Pronouns highlight a contrast

Common Mistakes

Keeping the infinitive after a subject

• Wrong: Eu comer pizza.
• Right: Eu como pizza.
• Why: A normal present-tense statement needs a conjugated verb. Comer is the infinitive; with eu, use como.

Using an English-style ending for every subject

• Wrong: Nós come pizza.
• Right: Nós comemos pizza.
• Why: Portuguese endings change with the subject. The -e form belongs to ele, ela, or você; nós requires -emos. The noun must also fit the intended meaning: pizza can remain singular here.

Matching você with the tu form

• Wrong: Você bebes café?
• Right: Você bebe café?
• Why: Although você means “you,” its verb is grammatically third-person singular. Use tu bebes or você bebe, not a mixture.

Giving vocês the vós ending

• Wrong: Vocês comeis aqui?
• Right: Vocês comem aqui?
• Why: -eis goes with vós. The much more common vocês takes the third-person plural ending -em.

Adding an equivalent of English “do”

• Wrong: Fazes tu bebes café?
• Right: Tu bebes café? / Bebes café?
• Why: Portuguese forms present-tense questions without a “do/does” helper. Do not use fazer to copy English question structure.

Treating every -ER verb as regular

• Wrong: Eu fazo o jantar.
• Right: Eu faço o jantar.
• Why: The infinitive fazer ends in -er, but it is irregular. The same is true of very common verbs such as ser (“to be”), ter (“to have”), poder (“can”), and querer (“to want”). Learn their forms separately.

Usage Notes

Tu, você, and regional usage

The conjugation pattern is stable, but preferred forms of address vary. In Portugal, tu is common in informal relationships, while você can sound distant or be avoided in some settings; speakers may use a person’s name or title with the same third-person verb form. In Brazil, both tu and você occur, and the choice varies greatly by region and social setting. Standard grammar pairs tu with comes and você with come, though everyday regional speech does not always follow that pairing.

For plural “you,” vocês + third-person plural is normal in both Brazil and most everyday European Portuguese. Vós + second-person plural survives in some regional, religious, ceremonial, and literary contexts, but most beginners need to recognise comeis rather than use it actively.

Pronunciation of plural endings

The forms come and comem are not distinguished merely by spelling. The final -m in comem, bebem, and vivem marks a nasal ending; it is not pronounced as an English final “m.” Pronunciation differs somewhat between European and Brazilian Portuguese, so learn the sound from audio in the variety you are studying. In writing, remember that singular has -e and plural has -em.

Not all apparent patterns guarantee regularity

The -er ending identifies a conjugation class, not a promise that every verb follows the model without changes. Some verbs have irregular stems, spelling changes, or vowel changes. When a dictionary or course labels a verb irregular, learn its actual forms instead of forcing the comer pattern onto it.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

You do not need to master the following distinctions at A1, but they explain forms you will encounter later.

Two common progressive constructions

For an action specifically in progress, Brazilian Portuguese commonly uses estar + gerund (a verb form often corresponding to English “-ing”):

• Estou comendo. — “I’m eating.”
• Eles estão escrevendo. — “They’re writing.”

European Portuguese commonly uses estar a + infinitive instead:

• Estou a comer. — “I’m eating.”
• Eles estão a escrever. — “They’re writing.”

The simple present remains important for habits and facts: Como cedo usually means “I eat early,” not necessarily “I am eating early right now.” Context and regional preference determine the most natural choice.

The present can describe future plans

With a future-time expression, the present may refer to a scheduled or settled event: Amanhã vendemos o carro (“Tomorrow we’re selling the car”). This resembles English use of the present for arrangements, but Portuguese uses it freely in everyday speech. A future construction is also possible; the present simply presents the plan as current and definite.

Forms that look regular may belong to other tenses

Portuguese sometimes reuses the same written form in different parts of the verb system. For regular -er verbs, comemos can be present (“we eat”) or the preterite (“we ate”). Time expressions and context resolve the meaning:

• Comemos aqui todos os dias. — “We eat here every day.”
• Ontem comemos aqui. — “Yesterday we ate here.”

This is not a change to the present-tense rule; it is an overlap you will study when learning the past tense.

Practice Tips

1. Use a stem-and-ending drill. Choose five regular verbs—such as comer, beber, viver, escrever, and vender—and say all six forms aloud. Group them by ending: como/bebo/vivo, then comes/bebes/vives, and so on.
2. Build contrasts instead of isolated forms. Write pairs such as Eu bebo chá; eles bebem café and Tu vives aqui; nós vivemos ali. Contrasts make the person endings easier to hear and remember.
3. Practise with and without pronouns. First say Eu escrevo todos os dias; then say Escrevo todos os dias. When listening, identify the subject from the ending before looking for an explicit pronoun.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Subject Pronouns — learn how eu, tu, ele/ela, nós, vós, and eles/elas identify the subject.
• Next step: Fazer (to do/make) — compare the regular -er endings with a very common irregular verb.
• Next step: Querer (to want) — learn another frequent -er verb whose stem changes in the present.