perguntar — to ask

How to use perguntar in Brazilian Portuguese

Perguntar is the Brazilian Portuguese verb for to ask. 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 pergunto — I ask. The pretérito perfeito is the finished past, the English simple past: eu perguntei — I asked. The pretérito imperfeito is for habits, background and how things used to be: eu perguntava — I used to ask / was asking. Because perguntar 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 pergunte — that I ask — and the imperfeito do subjuntivo, the tense of hypotheticals: eu perguntasse — if I asked.

Said the Rio way, pergunto sounds like per-GOON-too. The nós form perguntamos ends in the carioca “sh”, pehr-goon-TAH-moosh — the most recognisable sound of the Rio accent, where São Paulo says a plain s.