escrever — to write

How to use escrever in Brazilian Portuguese

Escrever is the Brazilian Portuguese verb for to write. It is a regular -er verb, so once you know the endings there are no surprises.

Three tenses do almost all the work in conversation. The presente covers the present and the near future: eu escrevo — I write. The pretérito perfeito is the finished past, the English simple past: eu escrevi — I wrote. The pretérito imperfeito is for habits, background and how things used to be: eu escrevia — I used to write / was writing.

Said the Rio way, escrevo sounds like esh-KREH-voo. The nós form escrevemos ends in the carioca “sh”, esh-kreh-VEH-moosh — the most recognisable sound of the Rio accent, where São Paulo says a plain s.