Defective verbs. Curiosities about defective verbs

The Portuguese language is known for being full of rules and some important exceptions. Among the ten grammar classes, we have the verbs, which are those words that indicate actions, states or phenomena, always placing them in time.

When we think of verbs, we immediately remember the verb tenses and also the conjugations, right? We are used to conjugating them according to what the personal pronouns require, however, not all verbs in Portuguese fit this definition, which causes even more doubts. are the calls defective verbs. According to definitions from various dictionaries, the word defective means "that which is not perfect, defective, or incomplete."

Defective verbs are so called because they do not have all verb forms and, therefore, cannot be conjugated in certain people, tenses or moods. Note an example of a defective verb conjugated in indicative mode:

Gift Me color You color He color we color you colored They color

past tense perfect I colorists you colored he colored we color you colored they colored

Future I will color you will color he will color we color you will color they will color

Noticed something unusual in the conjugation of the verb to color? It, unlike most verbs, does not have the conjugation in the first person singular present tense and the forms derived therefrom. you can even talk I color the drawing, but he will certainly be uncomfortable with this strange conjugation. This is because the conjugation color is not pleasant to the ears, that is, it does not respect the criteria of euphony, because the sounds of our language, as well as beautiful music, need to be harmonious. But when that happens, what should we do?

Even though we don't know what defective verbs are (now you know!), we make substitutions when we need to use them. Rather than I color, you will probably say I paint, rather than I get back, I recover, rather than I leave, I willand so on. Did you see? Now that you know these very special verbs, you can fearlessly make substitutions that respect the euphony and also the meaning of the verbs.

By Luana Castro
Graduated in Letters