The consecration of the form explodes. How did the consecration of the explode form take place?

The consecration of the form “explodes” brings us to an important fact related to grammatical postulates – the verbs defectives, whose main characteristic is revealed by its non-complete conjugation, taking into account the times and modes verbal. Thus, the inexistence of some forms is due to two elementary factors: euphony (relating to a pleasant sound) and homophony (relating to the equal sound). It is for this reason that certain verbs, such as “compute”, do not have complete conjugation. Another example, referring to the identical sound, is the verb “fail”, which in some verbal people is confused with the verb “to speak”.

This time, the verb "explode", traditionally considered as defective, began to be uttered through the forms “explode” and the variant “explodo”, through the character Justo Veríssimo, starring the humorist Chico Anysio. These forms are manifested only in orality and rarely in writing – given their classificatory (defective) character.

The fact is that, from the contribution of the noble character (in the case of the verb “explode”), and, above all, over time (as is the case of the verb “erode”), some defective forms were regularized, as well portrayed in the dictionaries modern.

However, the Aurélio dictionary, indisputably, conceives them as being authentically defective – in addition, some authors avoid the debatable forms.

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However, the verbs "to hatch" and "implode" are still treated as defective, not being conjugated in the first persons, both in the present tense and the indicative way. (hatch / implode), and the present tense in the subjunctive mode (hatch / implode), even because the verb "hatch" is only conjugated in third persons: hatch, hatch, hatch, etc.

Therefore, by sayings like "I want the people to explode”, we see the dynamism of the language, and that little by little this same character that surrounds it ends up becoming formalized. Such perception is defined precisely by the fact that the verb “explode” is demarcated by its inflected form – “explodes” (represented by the third person of the present tense in the subjunctive way).


By Vânia Duarte
Graduated in Letters
Brazil School Team

Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:

DUARTE, Vânia Maria do Nascimento. "The consecration of the form “explodes""; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/gramatica/a-consagracao-forma-exploda.htm. Accessed on June 28, 2021.

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