Hacking Portuguese Participles

portuguese participles

Many Portuguese learners get tripped-up with the past tense. But there are some hacks that can get you speaking quickly. One of them is learning to use Portuguese participles. The past participle is just a verb conjugation that describes something that is over and done: written, said, cooked, closed etc.

Learning the Portuguese participles is easy.

Once you already know the basic form of a past participle, you can put together sentences like this:

A conta está paga. ➜ The bill is paid.

PAGAR > pago/a

A loja está aberta. ➜ The store is open.

ABRIR > aberto/a

O trabalho está feito. ➜ The work is done.

FAZER > feito/a

Sua camisa está bagunçada. ➜ Your shirt is messed-up.

BAGUNÇAR > bangunçado/a

Está reservada. ➜ It's reserved.

RESERVAR > reservado/a

Ela está casada. ➜ She's married.

CASAR > casado/a

Estamos perdidos. ➜ We're lost.

PERDER > perdido/a

Está trancada. ➜ It's locked.

TRANCAR > trancado/a

Estou falido. ➜ I'm broke.

FALIR > falido/a

Ele está desempregado. ➜ He's unemployed.

DESEMPREGAR > desempregado/a