ilustrar — Portuguese conjugation

to illustrate

Frequency#525Irregular

Indicative

Present (Presente) Regular

The presente covers routines, states, and immediate future with adverbs like hoje or amanhã. One present form covers both English simple and progressive readings in most situations.

Ela estuda português todas as noites.

PronounPortugueseEnglish
euilustroI illustrate
tuilustrasyou illustrate
vocêilustrayou illustrate
ele/elailustrahe/she/it illustrates
nósilustramoswe illustrate
vósilustraisyou (pl.) illustrate
vocêsilustramyou (pl.) illustrate
eles/elasilustramthey illustrate

Preterite (Pretérito perfeito simples) Irregular

The pretérito perfeito simples is a sharp, completed past. In European Portuguese it is the standard story-telling past; Brazilian usage often prefers the compound form in speech while keeping the simple for narrative and writing.

Ontem escreveu a carta inteira de uma vez.

PronounPortugueseEnglish
euilustreiI illustrated
tuilustrasteyou illustrated
vocêilustrouyou illustrated
ele/elailustrouhe/she/it illustrated
nósilustramoswe illustrated
vósilustrastesyou (pl.) illustrated
vocêsilustraramyou (pl.) illustrated
eles/elasilustraramthey illustrated

Imperfect (Pretérito imperfeito) Regular

The imperfeito describes past background, repeated actions, and how things used to be. Contrast it with the simple preterite for the “main event” line of a story.

Quando era criança, brincava na praia.

PronounPortuguese
euilustrava
tuilustravas
vocêilustrava
ele/elailustrava
nósilustrávamos
vósilustráveis
vocêsilustravam
eles/elasilustravam

Conditional (Condicional) Regular

The condicional is for polite offers, soft questions, and hypothetical “would” outcomes, and it often closes a se + imperfeito do subjuntivo chain in formal style.

Você poderia me explicar outra vez?

PronounPortugueseEnglish
euilustrariaI would illustrate
tuilustrariasyou would illustrate
vocêilustrariayou would illustrate
ele/elailustrariahe/she/it would illustrate
nósilustraríamoswe would illustrate
vósilustraríeisyou (pl.) would illustrate
vocêsilustrariamyou (pl.) would illustrate
eles/elasilustrariamthey would illustrate

Future (Futuro do presente) Regular

The futuro do presente states future facts; in everyday conversation you will often hear ir + infinitive or even the present with a time adverb instead of the synthetic future.

Amanhã faremos a reunião mais cedo.

PronounPortugueseEnglish
euilustrareiI will illustrate
tuilustrarásyou will illustrate
vocêilustraráyou will illustrate
ele/elailustraráhe/she/it will illustrate
nósilustraremoswe will illustrate
vósilustrareisyou (pl.) will illustrate
vocêsilustrarãoyou (pl.) will illustrate
eles/elasilustrarãothey will illustrate

Present perfect (Pretérito perfeito composto) Regular

The pretérito perfeito composto uses ter or haver plus the participle for a past that still touches the present or happens repeatedly up to now — a “have done” perfect with strong links to European norms.

Tenho pensado nisso há semanas.

PronounPortugueseEnglish
eutenho ilustradoI have illustrated
tutens ilustradoyou have illustrated
vocêtem ilustradoyou have illustrated
ele/elatem ilustradohe/she/it has illustrated
nóstemos ilustradowe have illustrated
vóstendes ilustradoyou (pl.) have illustrated
vocêstêm ilustradoyou (pl.) have illustrated
eles/elastêm ilustradothey have illustrated

Pluperfect (Mais-que-perfeito composto) Regular

The mais-que-perfeito composto is the pluperfect: an action was already finished before another past reference. It mirrors the English “had already”.

Já tinham saído quando chegámos.

PronounPortugueseEnglish
eutinha ilustradoI had illustrated
tutinhas ilustradoyou had illustrated
vocêtinha ilustradoyou had illustrated
ele/elatinha ilustradohe/she/it had illustrated
nóstínhamos ilustradowe had illustrated
vóstínheis ilustradoyou (pl.) had illustrated
vocêstinham ilustradoyou (pl.) had illustrated
eles/elastinham ilustradothey had illustrated

Conditional perfect (Condicional composto) Regular

The condicional composto expresses a counterfactual “would have” and appears with the right kind of if-clause in the subjunctive past for unreal conditions.

Teria aceite se tiveses avisado com antecedência.

PronounPortuguese
euteria ilustrado
tuterias ilustrado
vocêteria ilustrado
ele/elateria ilustrado
nósteríamos ilustrado
vósteríeis ilustrado
vocêsteriam ilustrado
eles/elasteriam ilustrado

Future perfect (Futuro composto) Regular

The futuro composto is the future-in-the-future: something will be finished before a later time. It is less frequent than the simple future but still useful for deadlines.

Até sexta, teremos lido tudo o relatório.

PronounPortugueseEnglish
euterei ilustradoI will have illustrated
tuterás ilustradoyou will have illustrated
vocêterá ilustradoyou will have illustrated
ele/elaterá ilustradohe/she/it will have illustrated
nósteremos ilustradowe will have illustrated
vóstereis ilustradoyou (pl.) will have illustrated
vocêsterão ilustradoyou (pl.) will have illustrated
eles/elasterão ilustradothey will have illustrated

Subjunctive

Present subjunctive (Conjuntivo presente) Regular

The present subjunctive appears after want, hope, fear, and impersonal triggers, and typically requires a new subject in the subordinate clause, just as in the other main Romance languages.

Espero que encontres o caminho fácil.

PronounPortuguese
euilustre
tuilustres
vocêilustre
ele/elailustre
nósilustremos
vósilustreis
vocêsilustrem
eles/elasilustrem

Imperfect subjunctive (Conjuntivo pretérito imperf.) Regular

The imperfect subjunctive in se + subjunctive → condicional is the classic “if I were a rich man” line in European Portuguese, parallel to the Spanish -ra form.

Se tivesse mais tempo, aprenderia outro idioma.

PronounPortuguese
euilustrasse
tuilustrasses
vocêilustrasse
ele/elailustrasse
nósilustrássemos
vósilustrásseis
vocêsilustrassem
eles/elasilustrassem

Other forms

Imperative (affirmative) (Imperativo afirmativo) Regular

The affirmative imperative in Portuguese is built with tu, você, nós, vós, and vocês forms; Brazilian norms favour você/vocês with third-person present verb shapes.

Diga a verdade, por favor.

PronounPortuguese
tuilustra
vocêilustre
ele/elailustre
nósilustremos
vósilustrai
vocêsilustrem
eles/elasilustrem

Imperative (negative) (Imperativo negativo) Regular

Negative commands require não plus the present subjunctive for each person, which is a distinctive feature compared to other Romance systems that reuse present indicative in some slots.

Não falemos com pressa, está tudo calmo.

PronounPortuguese
tunão ilustres
vocênão ilustre
ele/elanão ilustre
nósnão ilustremos
vósnão ilustreis
vocêsnão ilustrem
eles/elasnão ilustrem