Before we get into the subject, which we will discuss together, we invite you, dear user, to access two important texts: “Classification of verbs” and “Conjugation of some verbs irregularities”.
Now you remembered what we had already talked about, didn't you? Again we ask: why is it that some verbs, when expressed in the original form, are spelled in one form; and when combined do some letters change? Is it a graphic disagreement or a verbal irregularity?
To find out the truth, let's analyze what two important authors of the grammar we studied at school tell us, Celso Cunha and Lindley Cintra¹:
* Some verbs referring to the first conjugation, whose stems end in “-ç”, “-c” and “-g”, change these letters, respectively, to “-qu”, “-c”, and “-gu”, whenever the “-e” follows them. How about knowing some examples?
stay - stayed
to do justice - I punished
arrive - arrived
* Verbs referring to the second and third conjugations, whose stems end in “-c”, “-g” and “-gu”, change these letters to, respectively, “-ç”, “-j” and “-g”. Shall we go to some more of them?
win - win - win
tanger - tanjo - tanja
lift - lift - lift
restrict - restrict - restrict
extinguish - extinguish - extinguish
As you can see, some changes occurred due to what the rules related to spelling propose to us, a fact that allows us to state that they are about graphic accommodations, not of verbal irregularities. Did you like the discovery?
¹CUNHA, Celso; LINDLEY CINTRA, Luís. New grammar of contemporary Portuguese. Rio de Janeiro: New Frontier, 1985.
By Vânia Duarte
Graduated in Letters
