What this is about
Families two and three of the verb system. They work exactly like the -AR machine — chop the ending, attach the person — and they even share most endings with each other, so learn them as twins: -ER (comer, beber, aprender) and -IR (abrir, partir, assistir).
COMER — present
ABRIR — present
Spot the difference
Only the nós row tells the families apart: comemos vs abrimos. Everything else matches: -o, -e, -em.
| beber → eu bebo suco | to drink |
| aprender → ela aprende rápido | to learn |
| assistir → nós assistimos ao jogo | to watch |
| escrever → eles escrevem bem | to write |
Exceptions & details
1 · Some -IR verbs hide a vowel change in the eu-form: dormir → durmo, preferir → prefiro (Lição 8 and beyond). The other persons stay regular.
2 · assistir officially takes a (assistir AO jogo), but spoken Brazil often drops it — both will be understood.
3 · Don't confuse the families: comer is -ER (comemos), abrir is -IR (abrimos). When you learn a verb, its infinitive ending tells you everything.
Practise this chapter
0 pool questions plus generated ones — 20 fresh practice questions, reshuffled every visit, inside the grammar library.
Practise Regular -ER / -IR verbs (present) — 20 questions →This chapter is taught in Lição 3 of the course — free, no account needed. Rumo is a complete Brazilian Portuguese course, A1 to B2; level A1 is free.