O que você fez? | Free Portuguese lesson

Regular verbs in the past

To talk about something that happened and is finished, use the pretérito perfeito. Take off -ar, -er or -ir and add these endings:

	-ar (falar)	-er (comer)	-ir (abrir)
eu	falei	comi	abri
você, ele, ela, a gente	falou	comeu	abriu
nós	falamos	comemos	abrimos
vocês, eles, elas	falaram	comeram	abriram

Ontem eu trabalhei até as sete.Yesterday I worked until seven.
Você almoçou com a equipe?Did you have lunch with the team?
A gente comeu no restaurante por quilo.We ate at the by-the-kilo restaurant.
Eles abriram a loja às nove.They opened the store at nine.

Spelling: in the eu form, -car becomes -quei and -gar becomes -guei: fiqueiI stayed, chegueiI arrived, ligueiI called.

Questions and no

A question is the same sentence with a question mark. To say no, put não before the verb:

Você ligou para o Carlos?Did you call Carlos?
Não, eu não liguei.No, I didn't call.

Pay attention! Brazilians answer yes by repeating the verb: Você comeu?Did you eat? Comi.Yes, I did. And the nós form of -ar and -ir verbs is the same in the present and in the past (falamoswe speak, we spoke): the context tells you which one.