Summary p302

302 CONYERSATIONAL PORTUGUESE

42. SPELLING CHANGES IN YERBS

Some verb forms, as is true of other parts of speech, undergo spelling changes before certain endings. These changes are in the finał consonant of the stem. To understand these cases better, consult section 2, on pronunciation, of this gram-mar summary.

1. Verbs ending in -car

In verbs ending in -car in the infinitive the c changes to qu before e. This occurs in:

a.    the first person singular of the preterit

b.    all forms of the present subjunctive

Example: ficar to remain, to be

PRETERIT INDICATIYE PRESENT SUBJUNCTIYE

fiąuei	fiąue
(ficaste)	(fiąucs)
ficou	fiąue
ficamos^1	fiąuemos
(ficastes)	(fiąueis)
ficaram	fiąuem

Some of the other verbs in -car:

atacar	to attack	sccar	to dry
educar	to educate	significar	to signify,
explicar	to explain		mean
indicar	to indicate	tocar verificar	to touch, play (musie) to verify

¹ftcdmo$

2. Verbs ending in -ęar

In these verbs the ę changes to c before e, that is, in the same forms indicated above.

Example: comeęar to begin

PRETERIT INDICATIYE PRESENT SUBJUNCTIYE

comecei

(comeęaste)

comeęou

comeęamos¹ (comeęastes) comeęaram

comece

(comeces)

comece

comecemos

(comeceis)

comecem

Some of the other verbs in -ęar:

abraęar to embrace	foręar	to force
alcanęar to reach	recomeęar	to begin
caęar to hunt		again
3. Yerbs ending in -gar	traęar	to tracę, sketch
In these verbs g becomes gu before		e, that is, in
the same forms indicated above.

Example: chegar to arrive

PRETERIT INDICATIVE PRESENT SUBJUNCTIYE cheguei    chegue

(chegaste)    (chegues)

chegou    chegue

chegamos²    cheguemos

(chegastes)    (chegueis)

chegaram    cheguem

1

   comeęamos (p)-

2

   chegamos (£).