Fala Gringo › Verbs › cair
cair — to fall
Full conjugation of cair 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 cair in Brazilian Portuguese
Cair is the Brazilian Portuguese verb for to fall. It is an irregular verb: 7 of its forms in the three tenses below break the regular -ir pattern (caio, cai, caímos, caí, caíram, caía…), and those are the ones to learn by heart.
Three tenses do almost all the work in conversation. The presente covers the present and the near future: eu caio — I fall. The pretérito perfeito is the finished past, the English simple past: eu caí — I fell. The pretérito imperfeito is for habits, background and how things used to be: eu caía — I used to fall / was falling.
Said the Rio way, caio sounds like KAI-oo. The nós form caímos ends in the carioca “sh”, kah-EE-moosh — the most recognisable sound of the Rio accent, where São Paulo says a plain s.
Presente — present tense
| Person | Form | Pronunciation | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| eu | caioI fall | KAI-oo | Eu caio sempre nessa pegadinha. |
| você / ele / ela | caiyou fall | KAI | Você cai muito de bicicleta? |
| nós | caímoswe fall | kah-EE-moosh | Nós caímos na mesma armadilha. |
| vocês / eles / elas | caemyou all fall | KAH-eng | Vocês caem nesse golpe? |
Pretérito Perfeito — simple past
| Person | Form | Pronunciation | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| eu | caíI fell | kah-EE | Eu caí da escada ontem. |
| você / ele / ela | caiuyou fell | kah-EE-oo | Você caiu no chão? |
| nós | caímoswe fell | kah-EE-moosh | Nós caímos no meio do caminho. |
| vocês / eles / elas | caíramyou all fell | kah-EE-rahng | Vocês caíram da bicicleta? |
Pretérito Imperfeito — past habitual, “used to”
| Person | Form | Pronunciation | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| eu | caíaI used to fall / was falling | kah-EE-ah | Eu caía muito quando era criança. |
| você / ele / ela | caíayou used to fall / were falling | kah-EE-ah | Você caía da cama dormindo? |
| nós | caíamoswe used to fall / were falling | kah-EE-ah-moosh | Nós caíamos sempre nessa pegadinha. |
| vocês / eles / elas | caíamyou all used to fall / were falling | kah-EE-ahng | Vocês caíam de patins? |
More “Ações e movimentos” verbs
- trazer to bring
- colocar to put, to place
- tirar to take (photo, vacation), to take off, to remove
- deixar to leave (behind), to let
- passar to pass, to spend (time)
- parar to stop
- continuar to continue
- mudar to change, to move (house)
- correr to run
- sentar to sit (down)
- fugir to run away, to escape
- andar to walk, to go around
- botar to put (colloquial)
- descer to go down, to get off
- partir to leave, to depart
- pôr to put, to place
- subir to go up, to climb
- virar to turn (a corner), to become