Portuguese Subjunctive: Present, Imperfect & Future in Brazilian Portuguese

Portuguese verbs do more than locate an event in time. They can also show how the speaker is presenting that event. The indicative is the default mood for assertions, descriptions, routines, and information presented as part of reality. The subjunctive appears in constructions where the event is filtered through another idea: a desire, evaluation, possibility, hypothesis, condition, purpose, concession, or future contingency.

How regular verbs are formed

For regular verbs, the practical pattern is a vowel switch: -AR verbs use E, while -ER and -IR verbs use A.

The full prescriptive paradigm also includes tu fales/comas/abras and vós faleis/comais/abrais. For broad practical Brazilian Portuguese, the four patterns above give learners the highest return, while tu remains important in regional systems.

A powerful formation shortcut: start from the present-tense eu form

Many present-subjunctive stems become easier when you connect them to the first-person singular of the Portuguese present tense. Remove the final -o and build the subjunctive from that stem:

The eu-form shortcut also works for many irregular-looking verbs. For example, poder: eu posso → possa. Other high-frequency verbs do not follow that shortcut transparently and are best learned as complete patterns: ser → seja, estar → esteja, ir → vá, dar → dê, saber → saiba, querer → queira, and haver → haja. For a deeper treatment of irregularity across the verb system, see our Portuguese Irregular Verbs guide.

High-value present-subjunctive constructions

How to form it

The most reliable pattern starts with the third-person plural of the preterite. Remove -ram and add the imperfect-subjunctive endings.

The endings follow the pattern -sse, -sse, -ssemos, -ssem for the four practical subject groups used in this guide: eu; você/ele/ela/a gente; nós; vocês/eles/elas. In the nós form, remember the written accent: regular -ER verbs and ser/ir use a circumflex in forms such as comêssemos and fôssemos, while forms such as falássemos, partíssemos, tivéssemos, and fizéssemos take an acute accent.

Use 1: hypothetical se-clauses

Use 2: a subjunctive clause dependent on a past viewpoint

Eu queria que você viesse.
I wanted you to come.

Era importante que eles soubessem.
It was important that they knew.

Ela pediu que a gente esperasse.
She asked us to wait.

In everyday Brazilian speech, Ela pediu pra gente esperar is a very common alternative. Learning both helps you recognize the standard subjunctive relationship without mistaking it for the only natural conversational option.

Use 3: como se

Ele fala como se soubesse tudo.
He talks as if he knew everything.

Ela me olhou como se eu fosse louco.
She looked at me as if I were crazy.

How to form it

Again, start with the third-person plural preterite and remove -ram. For regular verbs, the resulting eu/você/ele/ela form often looks identical to the infinitive. Irregular verbs reveal the pattern much more clearly.

Use it with future conditions

Se eu tiver tempo, eu te ligo.
If I have time, I’ll call you.

Se você quiser, a gente pode ir agora.
If you want, we can go now.

Se for possível, me avisa.
If possible, let me know.

Use it with future-time clauses

Quando você chegar, me manda uma mensagem.
When you arrive, send me a message.

Assim que eu souber, te aviso.
As soon as I know, I’ll let you know.

Depois que a gente terminar, vamos comer.
After we finish, we’ll eat.

Yes. Forms such as faça, tenha, venha, fosse, tivesse, quiser, puder, and vier are normal parts of Brazilian Portuguese. You will hear them in ordinary conversation, not only in literature or formal speeches.

At the same time, Brazilian Portuguese is not uniform. Sociolinguistic research documents variation between subjunctive and indicative forms in some environments, with the amount and type of variation affected by construction, region, community, and other linguistic and social factors. That means two bad teaching extremes should be avoided:

For a learner, the strategic target is clear: master the standard, high-frequency subjunctive patterns first. They are widely understood, expected in monitored usage, and indispensable for structures such as quero que você faça, se eu tivesse, and quando eu tiver. In some colloquial varieties and constructions, you may also hear indicative forms where school grammar predicts a subjunctive. Treat those forms as sociolinguistic variation to recognize—not as a universal conversational replacement for the subjunctive. Once the core patterns are automatic, exposure will teach you where individual Brazilian varieties alternate.

What about a gente?

A gente follows third-person singular verb agreement:

É importante que a gente fale.
It is important that we talk.

You will also hear the conversational infinitive alternative É importante a gente falar. The verb agreement in the subjunctive example remains third-person singular because a gente functions grammatically as singular.

Se a gente tivesse tempo…
If we had time…

Quando a gente tiver tempo…
When we have time…

And commands?

Some command forms overlap morphologically with the present subjunctive: faça, venha, fale, não faça. Brazilian imperative usage has its own regional and stylistic variation, so commands deserve separate treatment. The important point here is simply to recognize why a form such as faça can appear both in Quero que você faça and as a command, Faça isso.

You do need conjugation, but memorizing paradigms alone will not make the mood usable. Build a small collection of high-frequency frames and rotate verbs through them:

Then practice contrast, not isolation. Say tenho → tenha → tivesse → tiver; faço → faça → fizesse → fizer; venho → venha → viesse → vier. This connects the subjunctive to forms you already know instead of creating three disconnected vocabulary lists.