Hey hey, how are you? Let’s start today’s Portuguese lesson for foreigners! We’re going to learn all about regência verbal in Portuguese. Don’t know what this is? Follow us and you’ll get it!
Regência verbal is the connection a verb and its complement. Some verbs will change according to the word following it, they may have their meaning altered by a noun, or others need a preposition. This is what we are studying today. Take a look at this example:
Eu moro no Rio de Janeiro.
I live in Rio de Janeiro.
The verb morar in Portuguese needs the preposition em. So we always say that we live in somewhere. If we don’t use the correct preposition here the sentence won’t have a meaning or could have its meaning changed.
Let’s see another example:
Ele vai para a praia.
He goes to the beach.
With the verb ir (to go) we also need a preposition because in Portuguese we always go to somewhere. In Portuguese we have 2 prepositions that work in the same way: a and para, so in this case we can use both.
We also have verbs that don’t need preposition. Take a look:
Ele comeu naquele restaurante.
He ate in that restaurant.
Nós queremos viajar em breve.
We want to travel very soon.
As you now know, some verbs need a preposition before their complements. Take a look at this list of certain verbs and their prepositions:
| Acostumar-se | a |
| Ajudar | a |
| Começar | a |
| Concordar | em |
| Continuar | a |
| Gostar | de |
| Desistir | de |
| Ensinar | a |
| Ir | a / para |
| Lembrar-se | de |
| Pedir | para |
| Pensar | em |
| Sonhar | em |
| Terminar | de |
Eu gosto de você.
I like you.
Eles começaram a estudar Português online.
They started to study Portuguese online.
Nós concordamos em chegar cedo.
We agreed to arrive early.
Eu me acostumei a dormir tarde.
I got used to going to sleep late.
Vou te ajudar a escrever.
I’ll help you to write it.
A professora me pediu para ler.
The teacher asked me to read.
Continue a nadar!
Keep on swimming!
Elas pensam em comprar uma casa grande.
They are thinking about buying a big house.
There are a lot of verbs in Portuguese, and it’s impossible to talk about all of them in one Dica. So if you have any doubts or want to study more, have Portuguese courses for foreigners with us!
Create sentences with the verbs below. If your answers don’t match our suggestions, please comment here in our Dica, and we’ll help you out! Hint: if you didn’t see the verb in the list above, it probably means that you won’t need to use a preposition 😉 !
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Click on the links below to see more related Dicas
Present Perfect in Portuguese
Que in Portuguese
Portuguese Indirect Speech
Adverbs of denial
Me lembrei de você ontem!
Eu quero comer pizza!
Eu gosto de você!
Vamos começar a estudar Português!
Ele come rápido.
Nós pensamos em viajar no próximo mês.
Eu desisto de cozinhar hoje.
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