30 Key Verbs in the Past Tense in Brazilian Portuguese

by | Mar 21, 2024 | Brazilian Portuguese Basic Course

Olá, queridos alunos! Aqui é a Virginia, sua professora brasileira.

Do you know how to conjugate verbs in the past tense in Portuguese? Let’s practice with a verb conjugation drill!

I prepared a PDF with extra exercises for you to practice conjugating verbs in the past tense.

Fill out the form below to download your PDF.

    Today, we are going to do a conjugation drill. The goal of this exercise is to practice, recall, and memorize the conjugation of verbs in Portuguese. Our focus today will be the conjugation of verbs in the simple past tense.

    The activity works as follows: I will conjugate a verb in the present tense, and you must conjugate the same verb in the past tense, always using the first person “I”.

    For example:

    Eu trabalho (I work) – Eu trabalhei (I worked).

    In total, we will study thirty verbs, fifteen regular and fifteen irregular.

    Watch the video to do the verb conjugation drill with me!

    If you prefer to do the exercise here, keep reading! You will find the answers at the bottom of the page. Are you ready? Let’s go!

    15 REGULAR VERBS:

    AMAR – Eu amo – Eu _____ (I love – I loved)

    ESTUDAR – Eu estudo – Eu _____ (I study – I studied)

    COMER – Eu como – Eu _____ (I eat – I ate)

    ASSISTIR – Eu assisto – Eu _____ (I watch – I watched)

    CAMINHAR – Eu caminho – Eu _____ (I walk – I walked)

    ESCREVER – Eu escrevo – Eu _____ (I write – I wrote)

    ABRIR – Eu abro – Eu _____ (I open – I opened)

    ACORDAR – Eu acordo – Eu _____ (I wake up – I woke up)

    PENSAR – Eu penso – Eu _____ (I think – I thought)

    ENTENDER – Eu entendo – Eu _____ (I understand – I understood)
    BEBER – Eu bebo – Eu _____ (I drink – I drank)

    DIRIGIR – Eu dirijo – Eu _____ (I drive – I drove)

    ALMOÇAR – Eu almoço – Eu _____ (I have lunch – I had lunch)

    FALAR – Eu falo – Eu _____ (I speak – I spoke)

    APRENDER – Eu aprendo – Eu _____ (I learn – I learned)

    15 IRREGULAR VERBS:

    DAR – Eu dou – Eu _____ (I give – I gave)

    DIZER – Eu digo – Eu _____ (I say – I said)

    SER – Eu sou – Eu _____ (I am – I was)

    ESTAR – Eu estou – Eu _____ (I am – I was)

    FAZER – Eu faço – Eu _____ (I do/make – I did/made)

    VER – Eu vejo – Eu _____ (I see – I saw)

    VIR – Eu venho – Eu _____ (I come – I came)

    IR – Eu vou – Eu _____ (I go – I went)

    TER – Eu tenho – Eu _____ (I have – I had)

    TRAZER – Eu trago – Eu _____ (I bring – I brought)

    PÔR – Eu ponho – Eu _____ (I put – I put)

    QUERER – Eu quero – Eu _____ (I want – I wanted)

    PODER – Eu posso – Eu _____ (I can – I could)

    SABER – Eu sei – Eu _____ (I know – I knew)

    LER – Eu leio – Eu _____ (I read – I read)

    The goal of this lesson is just to practice and memorize the conjugation of verbs in the past tense. If you still need to learn how to conjugate verbs, I recommend my Verb Conjugation Crash Course, where I teach all the verb tenses used in Brazil, how to use each verb tense, and what are the most used verbs in the Portuguese language. Click here to learn more.

    Check your answers!

    AMAR – Eu amo – Eu amei

    ESTUDAR – Eu estudo – Eu estudei

    COMER – Eu como – Eu comi

    ASSISTIR – Eu assisto – Eu assisti

    CAMINHAR – Eu caminho – Eu caminhei

    ESCREVER – Eu escrevo – Eu escrevi

    ABRIR – Eu abro – Eu abri

    ACORDAR – Eu acordo – Eu acordei

    PENSAR – Eu penso – Eu pensei

    ENTENDER – Eu entendo – Eu entendi

    BEBER – Eu bebo – Eu bebi

    DIRIGIR – Eu dirijo – Eu dirigi

    ALMOÇAR – Eu almoço – Eu almocei

    FALAR – Eu falo – Eu falei

    APRENDER – Eu aprendo – Eu aprendi

    DAR – Eu dou – Eu dei

    DIZER – Eu digo – Eu disse

    SER – Eu sou – Eu fui

    ESTAR – Eu estou – Eu estive

    FAZER – Eu faço – Eu fiz

    VER – Eu vejo – Eu vi

    VIR – Eu venho – Eu vim

    IR – Eu vou – Eu fui

    TER – Eu tenho – Eu tive

    TRAZER – Eu trago – Eu trouxe

    PÔR – Eu ponho – Eu pus

    QUERER – Eu quero – Eu quis

    PODER – Eu posso – Eu pude

    SABER – Eu sei – Eu soube

    LER – Eu leio – Eu li

    To assimilate what we’ve studied today, you need to keep practicing. That’s why I’ve prepared a PDF with extra exercises for you to practice conjugating verbs in the past tense. Fill out the form below to download your PDF.

      Até a próxima!

      Verb Conjugation Crash Course!

       

      Do you need help with verb conjugation in Portuguese?

      I know that verb conjugation in Portuguese is a big challenge for most students. That’s why I created a course focused on helping you learn verb conjugation.

      The Verb Conjugation Crash Course will teach you everything you need to know about verb conjugation in a structured and easy-to-understand way.

       

      Click here to learn more about the Verb Conjugation Crash Course.

      You May Also Like…

      SABER vs CONHECER – Can you pass this TEST?

      SABER vs CONHECER – Can you pass this TEST?

      The verbs saber and conhecer are translated into English as “to know.” For this reason, many students confuse them. This test will help you to understand which verb to use in each situation.