mudar — to change, to move (house)

How to use mudar in Brazilian Portuguese

Mudar is the Brazilian Portuguese verb for to change, to move (house). 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 mudo — I change. The pretérito perfeito is the finished past, the English simple past: eu mudei — I changed. The pretérito imperfeito is for habits, background and how things used to be: eu mudava — I used to change / move / was changing. Because mudar 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 mude — that I change — and the imperfeito do subjuntivo, the tense of hypotheticals: eu mudasse — if I changed / moved.

Said the Rio way, mudo sounds like MOO-doo. The nós form mudamos ends in the carioca “sh”, moo-DAH-moosh — the most recognisable sound of the Rio accent, where São Paulo says a plain s.