Fala Gringo › Verbs › buscar
buscar — to fetch, to pick (someone) up
Full conjugation of buscar in the tenses that matter for everyday speech, with pronunciation hints in the Rio (carioca) accent and example sentences the way Brazilians actually talk — not textbook European Portuguese.
How to use buscar in Brazilian Portuguese
Buscar is the Brazilian Portuguese verb for to fetch, to pick (someone) up. It is a regular -ar verb, so once you know the endings there are no surprises — only the spelling shifts in busquei to keep the sound of the stem, which is orthography, not irregularity.
Three tenses do almost all the work in conversation. The presente covers the present and the near future: eu busco — I fetch / pick up. The pretérito perfeito is the finished past, the English simple past: eu busquei — I fetched / picked up. The pretérito imperfeito is for habits, background and how things used to be: eu buscava — I used to fetch / pick up.
Said the Rio way, busco sounds like BOOSH-koo. The nós form buscamos ends in the carioca “sh”, boosh-KAH-moosh — the most recognisable sound of the Rio accent, where São Paulo says a plain s.
Presente — present tense
| Person | Form | Pronunciation | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| eu | buscoI fetch / pick up | BOOSH-koo | Eu busco as crianças na escola às cinco. |
| você / ele / ela | buscayou fetch / pick up | BOOSH-kah | Você busca ela no aeroporto? |
| nós | buscamoswe fetch / pick up | boosh-KAH-moosh | Nós buscamos o bolo na confeitaria. |
| vocês / eles / elas | buscamyou all fetch / pick up | BOOSH-kahng | Vocês buscam o carro hoje? |
Pretérito Perfeito — simple past
| Person | Form | Pronunciation | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| eu | busqueiI fetched / picked up | boosh-KAY | Eu busquei ela no trabalho. |
| você / ele / ela | buscouyou fetched / picked up | boosh-KOH | Você buscou a encomenda? |
| nós | buscamoswe fetched / picked up | boosh-KAH-moosh | Nós buscamos os documentos ontem. |
| vocês / eles / elas | buscaramyou all fetched / picked up | boosh-KAH-rahng | Vocês buscaram as crianças? |
Pretérito Imperfeito — past habitual, “used to”
| Person | Form | Pronunciation | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| eu | buscavaI used to fetch / pick up | boosh-KAH-vah | Eu buscava meu irmão na escola. |
| você / ele / ela | buscavayou used to fetch / pick up | boosh-KAH-vah | Você buscava ela todo dia? |
| nós | buscávamoswe used to fetch / pick up | boosh-KAH-vah-moosh | Nós buscávamos pão fresco de manhã. |
| vocês / eles / elas | buscavamyou all used to fetch / pick up | boosh-KAH-vahng | Vocês buscavam os avós no domingo? |
More “Vida diária e mobilidade” verbs
- morar to live (reside)
- trabalhar to work
- estudar to study
- chegar to arrive
- demorar to take long, to be slow
- sair to go out
- entrar to enter, to get in, to come in
- pegar to take (bus, metro, Uber)
- levar to take / carry
- voltar to return
- caminhar to walk
- dirigir to drive
- ligar to call (phone), to turn on
- desligar to turn off, to hang up