Irregular Verbs in Portuguese – IR e VIR

Hello Dearest People! After some time without writing, due to some long-awaited vacation, I am back! Full of energy and with some new irregular verbs in Portuguese – this time IR (to go) and VIR (to come). I know it has been a while, but I am back on track to bring you the most used irregular verbs in Portuguese, which I will be doing in this and some following posts.

Today we will then be covering the verbs IR and VIR. These verbs are used almost every day when you speak Portuguese and they have a wide use.

Just like in the previous posts, I am going to tell you how to conjugate these verbs in the Present Tense, leaving other tenses for future articles – just bear with me!

Alright, shall we start?

Irregular Verbs in Portuguese – Presente Simples

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IR
Eu	vou
Tu	vais
Ele/Ela/Você	vai
Nós	vamos
Vocês	vão
Eles/Elas	vão

VIR
Eu	venho
Tu	vens
Ele/Ela/Você	vem
Nós	vimos
Vocês	vêm
Eles/Elas	vêm

Pay attention – only “nós” in the verb “vir” is regular!

As you can see in the tables above, both verbs are highly irregular. They are semantically related, as they both indicate movement. Besides this, they both end in “ir”. Regular verbs ending in “ir”, form the first person by adding an “o” to the stem, just like the verbs ending in “ar” and “er”. However, notice that these verbs – IR and VIR – are already irregular in the way they form the first person. IR adds an “ou” and VIR adds a “nh”, before the “o”. In this sense, VIR is similar to the verb TER that we saw in the previous post about the irregular verbs.  This way, we end up having “Eu vou” and “Eu venho”, as the first persons of the verb IR and VIR, respectively.

Both verbs also form the second person singular in a peculiar and irregular way. Instead of just adding the “es” to the stem, like what happens with regular verbs, the verb IR adds an “is” and the verb VIR completely changes it into “vens”.

The third person singular also does not follow the regular verbs rules, since IR forms it as “vai” and VIR as “vem”- This has nothing to do with the regular verbs, which add an “e” to the stem. If you want to check again how to conjugate the regular verbs in the third person singular in the Present Tense, check it out here.

Just like in other irregular verbs, the second and third persons of the plural form are also very irregular in these two verbs. The first person plural of IR also forms in a different way, as “vamos”. However, the first person plural of VIR forms in a regular way, adding “imos” to the stem. Again, if you need to remind yourself of how to form the regular verbs, please click the link above.

Remember, the key for success is practice! Therefore, just take a look at my previous post, where I give you some tips on the best ways to learn the verbs.

IR can be used to talk about the near future

We use IR (conjugated) + the infinitive of the main verb to talk about the future. We can use the “simple future”, but we tend to use this kind of construction instead, especially in every day life.

This kind of future tense works a bit like the future tense in English. If you think about it, in English you can say “I will do it” or you can use the verb “to go” (which in Portuguese is IR) to say “I am going to do it”. In Portuguese, the sentence “I am going to do it” is built by using the verb IR.

So, if you want to say “I am going to give something”, you can say “Eu vou (conjugated IR) dar (infinitive of the main verb – in this case “to give”) alguma coisa (something).

Remember: IR e VIR can be mixed and matched with prepositions

A common mistake that I see my students making is when it comes to add prepositions to these verbs. You have to know that IR can only be accompanied by the prepositions a or para and NEVER em. If you want to know more about this, check out my previous post about when to use a and para. Also  check the Portuguese verbs with prepositions and thet Prepositions in Portuguese.

OK!

Since now you have some notions about these verbs, should we test your knowledge?

Just check the following exercises and if you have any questions, just drop me a line!

Irregular Verbs in Portuguese – Exercises with IR and VIR

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Completa com os verbos IR e VIR

1. Eu _________(vir) de Faro.
2. Ele _________(ir) com ela.
3. Nós _________(vir) em paz.
4. Eles _________ (ir) à praia.
5. Tu ________________(ir) a uma festa hoje.

Completa com os verbos regulares e irregulares. (If you need consult the post about the regular forms, click here ; if you need to check the post about DIZER and FAZER, or TER and DAR click here and here; you can also check the post about SER vs ESTAR here.)

1. A Joana ___________ (dar) um abraço ao irmão.
2. Nós ______________ (beber) água.
3. Elas ______________(fazer) 19 anos amanhã.
4. O Henrique e o Paulo ____________ (tocar) violino e guitarra.
5. Eu _______________ (fazer) a cama.
6. O Mário ________(gostar) de mim.
7. Vocês _______________ (comer) um gelado.
8. Ela _________________ (ser) alta.
9. Elas ________________ (ter) sede.
10. As crianças ____________(estar) contentes.
11. Eu ___________ (ir) contigo.
12. Eles __________ (vir) de comboio.
13. Nós ___________(vir) amanhã.
14. Vocês _________ (ir) comer a casa dos pais da Ana.
15. Tu ___________(ir) de carro com ele.

As in my previous posts, once you finish the exercises you can check the answers here. Remember: practice, practice, practice!

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Let me know how your journey through the world of irregular verbs in Portuguese is going! I am curious…

Leave some comments below and don´t be shy to contact me if you have any questions, suggestions, etc.

I hope to see you again soon and that you have fun with this post.

Beijinhos,

Mia.

PS – Check more about the verbs here:

Portuguese Verbs and Conjugations – Perfect vs Imperfect

Ser vs Estar Conjugation 

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