The personal infinitive is a feature of European Portuguese: an infinitive that takes personal endings to show who does the action. You use it mainly after prepositions like para when the verb has its own subject, as in para chegarmos a horas, meaning for us to arrive on time.
Most languages have one infinitive, a single unchanging form like to speak. Portuguese has that, and it also has a second one that conjugates. This personal infinitive, o infinitivo pessoal, adds an ending to show who the subject is, so falar can become falares or falarmos.
The structure surprises learners because English has nothing like it, and Spanish, French and Italian do not have it either. It is one of the features that make Portuguese from Portugal feel distinct. The good news is that it is fully regular, so once you know the endings, no verb is an exception.
Key takeaways
- The personal infinitive is an infinitive that adds personal endings to show who does the action, such as falares and falarmos.
- You use it mainly after prepositions like para, sem, antes de and depois de when the infinitive has its own subject.
- The personal infinitive is fully regular in the Portuguese spoken in Portugal, so even ser and ter simply add the endings: seres, termos.
- The rule is shared with Brazil, but Portugal keeps tu, so the tu ending, as in saíres, is everyday speech there.
What is the personal infinitive?
The personal infinitive is an infinitive that carries a personal ending. A plain infinitive names the action and nothing else, like falar, to speak. A personal infinitive names the action and marks its subject at the same time, so falarmos already means for us to speak.
This lets Portugal Portuguese keep a sentence short where English needs a full extra clause. Take é melhor ficarmos aqui. The single word ficarmos carries both the verb and its subject, and the whole phrase means it is better for us to stay here.
How do you form the personal infinitive?
You start from the plain infinitive and add a set of endings. The eu form and the ele form add nothing, so they look identical to the plain infinitive. The other persons add -es, -mos and -em. The same endings work for every verb in the Portuguese spoken in Portugal, across all three conjugations.
| Person | Personal infinitive (falar) | English |
|---|---|---|
| eu | falar | for me to speak |
| tu | falares | for you to speak |
| ele / ela / você | falar | for him or her to speak |
| nós | falarmos | for us to speak |
| eles / elas / vocês | falarem | for them to speak |
The one thing to remember is that the personal infinitive has no irregular verbs. The future subjunctive, which shares these endings for regular verbs, bends ser into for and ter into tiver. The personal infinitive does not: ser stays ser, seres, sermos, serem, and ter stays ter, teres, termos, terem.
When do you use the personal infinitive?
You reach for the personal infinitive when an infinitive has its own subject, and most often that happens after a preposition. The prepositions that trigger it most are para, por, sem, até, ao, antes de and depois de. The ending then tells the listener who the action belongs to.
| Trigger | Example | English |
|---|---|---|
| para | deixei a porta aberta para entrarem | I left the door open for them to come in |
| sem | saíram sem avisarem | they left without warning anyone |
| antes de | antes de saíres, fecha a porta | before you leave, close the door |
| é melhor | é melhor ficarmos aqui | it is better for us to stay here |
The second common home for it is the impersonal expression. Phrases like é importante, é bom and é melhor take a personal infinitive when you want to name who they apply to. É importante estudares means it is important that you study, with the subject carried by the ending alone.
Personal infinitive or plain infinitive?
The quickest test is the subject. When the main verb and the infinitive share one subject, the plain infinitive is normal in Portuguese from Portugal. When the infinitive has a different subject, the personal infinitive carries it, and leaving the ending off can change who the sentence is about.
Compare comprei o livro para ler with comprei o livro para leres. The first keeps one subject: I bought the book to read, myself. The second switches subject with the ending: I bought the book for you to read. The small -es does all of that work.
What changes in European Portuguese?
The personal infinitive belongs to the Portuguese language as a whole, so the rule you learn for Portugal also holds in Brazil. What differs is the person forms you actually hear, and that comes straight from how the two varieties address people.
Portugal keeps tu as its everyday informal you, so the tu personal infinitive, the -es ending, is ordinary speech: para saíres, antes de chegares, sem te preocupares. Brazil leans on você, which takes the bare form, so the same ideas come out as para sair and antes de chegar. For the full split between the varieties, see how different is European Portuguese from Brazilian Portuguese?, and for the pronouns behind it see tu vs você in European Portuguese.
| Portugal (tu) | Brazil (você) | English |
|---|---|---|
| para chegares a horas | para você chegar a horas | for you to arrive on time |
| antes de saíres | antes de você sair | before you leave |
| sem te preocupares | sem você se preocupar | without you worrying |
Spoken Portugal also uses the personal infinitive freely, often where a learner would expect a longer clause. Because the future subjunctive is common there too, and shares these endings for regular verbs, the two forms are easy to confuse. The subjunctive in European Portuguese covers how to tell them apart.
How do you make it automatic?
The personal infinitive is quick to understand and slow to produce, because in real speech you have no spare moment to decide whether an ending is needed. The form only turns automatic through use, so you have to say it, be corrected, and say it again until para and sem pull the ending on their own.
This is where Fluentus fits. Fluentus teaches the Portuguese spoken in Portugal only, and its AI tutor holds spoken conversations with you 24 hours a day in a real human voice. The tutor corrects your endings as you speak, so forms like chegarmos and saíres start coming out right without thought. It runs courses from A1 to B2 with smart flashcards built from your own conversations, on iOS and Android.
In one sentence: use the personal infinitive when an infinitive has its own subject, most often after a preposition like para, sem or antes de.
Frequently asked questions
What is the personal infinitive in Portuguese?
The personal infinitive is an infinitive that takes personal endings to show who does the action. It is a feature of Portuguese, so each person has its own form: falar, falares, falarmos, falarem. English has no equivalent, which is why the structure feels unusual to learners at first.
When do you use the personal infinitive?
You use the personal infinitive mainly after prepositions like para, sem, antes de and depois de, when the infinitive has its own subject. You also use it after impersonal expressions such as é melhor and é importante, as in é melhor ficarmos, meaning it is better for us to stay.
When do you use the plain infinitive instead?
You use the plain infinitive when the main verb and the infinitive share the same subject, as in comprei o livro para ler, meaning I bought the book to read. You switch to the personal infinitive when the subject changes, as in comprei o livro para leres, for you to read.
Is the personal infinitive different in Portugal and Brazil?
The personal infinitive belongs to Portuguese as a whole, so the rule is the same in Portugal and Brazil. The visible difference is the tu form. Portugal keeps tu, so you hear para saíres and antes de chegares, while Brazil usually uses você with para sair and antes de chegar.