Portuguese · Chapter 9 · Lesson 14 · Grammar primer

The future: -ei, -á and ir plus infinitive

You have used the everyday shortcut, vou falar, since chapter 2. This is the proper future tense beside it, and when anyone still reaches for it.

The short version

Brazilians say vou falar, not falarei

Portuguese has a proper future tense, falarei, but in everyday Brazilian speech it is rare. People use the present of ir plus an infinitive instead: vou falar, vamos ver, ela vai chegar. It covers plans, predictions and offers alike. Save the simple future for writing and solemn promises.

Vamos ver.

We will see.

Only three verbs are irregular in the future

The simple future keeps the whole infinitive and adds -ei, -á, -emos, -ão. Even ser, ter and estar are regular here. Just three verbs break the pattern, and they break it the same way: fazer, dizer and trazer drop the -ze- and become farei, direi and trarei.

Eu nunca direi nada.

I will never say anything.

That's the gist. The full article goes deeper - more examples, the edge cases, the why - and the practice below scores like a vocabulary session and earns the same XP.

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Lesson 14 of 21 in this chapter

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