tomar — to take (a shower, a coffee, medicine)

How to use tomar in Brazilian Portuguese

Tomar is the Brazilian Portuguese verb for to take (a shower, a coffee, medicine). 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 tomo — I take (a shower, a coffee). The pretérito perfeito is the finished past, the English simple past: eu tomei — I took (a shower, a coffee). The pretérito imperfeito is for habits, background and how things used to be: eu tomava — I used to take (a shower, a coffee). Because tomar 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 tome — that I take (a shower, a coffee) — and the imperfeito do subjuntivo, the tense of hypotheticals: eu tomasse — if I took (a shower, a coffee).

Said the Rio way, tomo sounds like TOH-moo. The nós form tomamos ends in the carioca “sh”, toh-MAH-moosh — the most recognisable sound of the Rio accent, where São Paulo says a plain s.