PORTUGUESE VERBS

The base form of the Portuguese verb is called “infinitivo” (infinitive). All infinitive verbs end in “–ar”, “-er”, “-ir” (and "-or", which is present in a single verb, "por" - to put). Once you take out the infinitive ending, you're left with the radical (stem), which is the element of the verb that possesses the meaning. The verbs change their endings according to the person (first, second, third); tense (present, preterite, imperfect, pluperfect, future, and conditional) and mood (indicative, subjunctive, imperative) they refer to, while other verbs (called as ) even change their roots.

Example:
   Infinitive Portuguese verb: amar
   Meaning: to love
   Stem: am
   Ending: ar

Conjugations

According to infinitive endings, verbs fall under three groups called conjugações (conjugations):

1st conjugation => verbs ending in ar
Examples:
- abaixar (lower)
- abandonar (abandon)
- achar (find)
2nd conjugation => verbs ending in er
Examples:
- acender (light)
- beber (drink)
- dizer (say)
3rd conjugation => verbs ending in ir
Examples:
- abrir (open)
- partir (leave)
- mentir (lie)
- sentir (feel)

* Verb pôr (to put) and all its derivations (propor, repor, depor, compor, dispor, etc) pertain to the second conjugation for etymological motives.

Mood

In Portuguese, verbs are divided into moods:

Indicative: These verbs are used to express a fact.
Example:
- Eu trabalho de segunda a sexta. (I work from Monday to Friday.)
Subjunctive: These verbs are used to express a wish or an imaginary condition.
Example:
- Sugiro que você seja mais educada com ele. (I suggest that you be more polite to him.)
Imperative: These verbs are used to express a wish, command or advice.
Example:
- Fique quieto! (Be quiet!)
- Não faça isso! (Don't do> that.)

Each mood is made up of a wide array of verb tenses:

Indicative mood - Modo indicativo

Portuguese	English
presente	present indicative
pretérito perfeito	preterite indicative
pretérito perfeito composto	present perfect indicative
pretérito imperfeito	imperfect indicative
pretérito mais-que-perfeito	pluperfect indicative
pretérito mais-que-perfeito composto	compound pluperfect indicative
futuro do presente	future indicative
futuro do presente composto	compound future indicative
futuro do pretérito	preterite future indicative
futuro do pretérito composto	compound preterite future indicative

Subjunctive mood - Modo subjuntivo

Portuguese	English
presente	present subjunctive
pretérito perfeito	perfect subjunctive
pretérito imperfeito	imperfect subjunctive
pretérito mais-que-perfeito	pluperfect subjunctive
futuro	future subjunctive
futuro composto	compound future subjunctive

Imperative mood - Modo imperativo

Portuguese	English
imperativo afirmativo	affirmative form
imperativo negativo	negative form

Verbals - Formas nominais

There are three nominal forms of the verb (infinitive, gerund and past participle), which are called formas nominais. The infinitive can be personal or impersonal, and the gerund can be simple or compound.

Portuguese	English
infinitivo impessoal simples	impersonal infinitive
infinitivo impessoal composto	compound impersonal infinitive
infinitivo pessoal	personal infinitive
infinitivo pessoal composto	compound personal infinitive
gerúndio	gerund
gerúndio composto	compound gerund
particípio	past participle

Types of verbs

There are different types of verbs, but principally, these are divided into:

Verbos regulares (regular verbs)
These verbs preserve their roots throughout their conjugation and substitute “ar”, “er” or “ir”.
Verbos irregulares (irregular verbs)
The irregular verbs change through their conjugation.

Other form to classify verbs is according to the role they play in a sentence:

Verbos auxiliares (auxiliary verbs)
These verbs form compound tenses (tempos verbais compostos), the passive voice and also verb phrases. The most important verb is verb to be (in Portuguse: ser and estar). Other auxiliary verbs are ter (to have), haver (there to be) and ir (to go).
Verbos principais (major verbs)
These verbs hold the most significant information of the discourse.

And other categories are:

Verbos anômalos (anomalous verbs)
These verbs present so many irregularities that go below this special category.
Verbos abundantes (abundant verbs),
These verbs present more than one verb form, particularly double participles.

Regular verbs
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Irregular verbs