Essential grammar

This is the minimum grammar you need to start building correct sentences in European Portuguese. It is no substitute for studying each topic in depth — the Grammar section exists for that — but it gathers in one place the rules with the highest return: the ones that, once mastered, resolve most everyday sentences.

Everything has a gender

Every noun is either masculine or feminine, even when it names a thing. The article must agree with the noun’s gender and number, and adjectives and pronouns follow suit.

	masculine	feminine
definite (the)	o livro	a mesa
definite plural	os livros	as mesas
indefinite (a/an)	um carro	uma casa

As a rule of thumb, words ending in -o tend to be masculine (o carro) and those in -a feminine (a porta), but there are exceptions to memorise (o problema “problem”, o dia “day”, a tribo “tribe”). Gender cannot be deduced from meaning: a mesa “table” is feminine and o copo “glass” is masculine for no reason beyond the history of the language.

Plurals

The basic rule is simple: add -s to words ending in a vowel. Consonant endings have their own patterns:

• -ão → -ões (the commonest): o avião → os aviões “planes”; but also -ãos (o irmão → os irmãos “brothers”) and -ães (o pão → os pães “loaves”);
• -l → -is: o hotel → os hotéis, o jornal → os jornais “newspapers”;
• -m → -ns: o homem → os homens “men”, o jardim → os jardins “gardens”;
• -s (in non-final-stressed words) stays invariable: o lápis → os lápis “pencils”.

Agreement: the adjective follows the noun

The adjective agrees in gender and number with the noun and, in Portuguese, usually comes after it.

Personal pronouns

	subject	direct object	indirect object
I	eu	me	me
you (sing.)	tu	te	te
he/she	ele/ela	o/a	lhe
we	nós	nos	nos
they	eles/elas	os/as	lhes

In European Portuguese the unstressed pronoun normally attaches after the verb, joined by a hyphen: Vejo-te amanhã “I’ll see you tomorrow”. But words like não “not”, que “that” or quando “when” pull the pronoun in front of the verb: Não te vejo “I don’t see you”.

Ser or estar: two verbs for “to be”

This distinction is central and has no direct English equivalent. Use ser for the permanent — identity, origin, essential characteristics — and estar for the transitory — states, momentary location, passing conditions.

The present tense

Verbs fall into three conjugations by their infinitive ending: -ar (falar “to speak”), -er (comer “to eat”) and -ir (partir “to leave”). In the present, drop the ending and add these inflections:

eu	falo
tu	falas
ele/ela	fala
nós	falamos
vós	falais
eles/elas	falam

eu	como
tu	comes
ele/ela	come
nós	comemos
vós	comeis
eles/elas	comem

The vós form is now archaic in ordinary speech; for the plural of “you” Portuguese uses vocês (with the verb in the third person plural). Because the ending already marks the person, the subject pronoun is usually dropped: one says falo, not eu falo, except for contrast or emphasis.

Talking about past and future without memorising everything

To start communicating, three constructions spare you long tables:

• Periphrastic future: ir (in the present) + infinitive — Vou comer “I’m going to eat”, more frequent in speech than the synthetic future (comerei).
• Recent past: acabar de + infinitive — Acabei de chegar “I have just arrived”.
• Action in progress: estar a + infinitive — Estou a estudar “I am studying (right now)”.

Negating and asking

Negation is made by placing não before the verb: Não falo francês “I don’t speak French”. Double negation is normal and correct: Não vejo ninguém “I don’t see anyone”, Nunca disse nada “I never said anything”. Questions require no inversion and no auxiliary verb — the same word order as the statement, marked only by intonation (in speech) or the question mark (in writing): Falas inglês? “Do you speak English?”

With these building blocks — gender and articles, agreement, pronouns, ser/estar and the present, plus the three shortcuts for past and future — you can already form most of the sentences in an everyday conversation. The rest builds out from here.