Past tense: irregular verbs (fui, tive, fiz)

The most common verbs have irregular past forms with a new stem: ter → tive, fazer → fiz, estar → estive. ser and ir share one past: fui means both “I was” and “I went”.

How to remember them

• The eu- and ele-forms have no stress on the ending and often differ only in the last vowel: tive / teve, estive / esteve, fiz / fez.
• The eles-form gives you the stem for later tenses: tiveram, fizeram, quiseram.
• pôde (past) has a circumflex to separate it from pode (present).
• ver (see) and vir (come) are easy to confuse: vi = I saw, vim = I came.

Examples

• Ontem fui ao supermercado.Yesterday I went to the supermarket.
• A viagem foi ótima.The trip was great.
• O que você fez no fim de semana?What did you do at the weekend?
• Tive muita sorte.I was very lucky.
• Eles vieram de carro.They came by car.
• Ela não quis sair.She didn’t want to go out.

Common mistakes

• ✗ Eu fazi o jantar ontem.✓ Eu fiz o jantar ontem.fazer has an irregular past, fiz; adding the regular -i ending is a natural guess, just as English learners first try “maked”.
• ✗ Ontem eu tenhei uma reunião.✓ Ontem eu tive uma reunião.ter changes its stem completely in the past: tive; the present stem tenh- cannot be used.
• ✗ Ela quereu ficar em casa.✓ Ela quis ficar em casa.querer has the irregular past quis for both eu and ele; the regular-looking quereu does not exist.
• ✗ Ontem eu vim um filme ótimo.✓ Ontem eu vi um filme ótimo.vi is the past of ver (see), vim the past of vir (come); the two short forms look alike, but English “saw” and “came” are clearly different.
• ✗ Ontem ele não pode vir.✓ Ontem ele não pôde vir.In the past the form is pôde with a circumflex; pode without it is the present “he can”, so ontem clashes with it.