falar — to speak, to talk

How to use falar in Brazilian Portuguese

Falar is the Brazilian Portuguese verb for to speak, to talk. It is a regular -ar 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 falo — I speak / talk. The pretérito perfeito is the finished past, the English simple past: eu falei — I spoke / talked. The pretérito imperfeito is for habits, background and how things used to be: eu falava — I used to speak / talk / was talking. Because falar is one of the 58 most-used verbs, the page also has both subjunctives: the presente do subjuntivo, the mood of wishes, doubts and “quero que…” — eu fale — that I speak / talk — and the imperfeito do subjuntivo, the tense of hypotheticals: eu falasse — if I spoke.

Said the Rio way, falo sounds like FAH-loo. The nós form falamos ends in the carioca “sh”, fah-LAH-moosh — the most recognisable sound of the Rio accent, where São Paulo says a plain s.