The verb system – beating heart of the Portuguese language!

Impersonal infinitive (infinitivo impessoal)

The impersonal infinite is used when there is no reference to a subject or when the infinitive verb is the subject itself.

💬 e.g.
brincar – to play (a-classe)
comer – to eat (e-classe)
rir – to laugh (i-classe)

⚠ There is one exception:
pôr – to put, to place, to lay
This verb has no typical ending and also has irregular forms.

Personal infinitive (infinitivo pessoal)

The personal infinitive is used in sentences in which the subject in the main clause and in the subordinate clause is different.
It expresses the idea of an action and it could be considered as the base form of the verb.
There are two types, personal and impersonal infinitives.

💬 e.g.
🇵🇹 Se tu não perceberes (subj.: 2^nd person singular) isto, eu não posso (subj.: 1^st person singular) ajudar-te.
🇬🇧 If you don't understand that, I can't help you.
 
🇵🇹 Eles alugam um carro para irem até lá.
🇬🇧 They rent a car to drive there.
 
🇵🇹 Depois de pintarmos as paredes de todos os quartos, aspiramos o pó em todo o lado.
🇬🇧 After painting the walls of all the rooms, we vacuum the dust everywhere.

Furthermore, the infinitivo pessoal is used for impersonal expressions.

💬 e.g.
🇵🇹 É bom saberes a verdade.
🇬🇧 It's good if you know the truth.
 
🇵🇹 É lamentável não ganharmos.
🇬🇧 It is a pity that we didn’t win.

Compound infinitive (infinitivo composto)

This verb form is mainly found in literary texts.
This verb form is only used with reference to the past tense.
Compound forms require the addition of one or more other verbs to make the meaning clear.

💬 e.g.
💬 e.g. ter falado – have spoken

➠ How to find the stem of a verb