Common irregular past participles

In brief

Many Portuguese past participles end in -ado or -ido, but common verbs have irregular forms: fazer → feito, escrever → escrito, dizer → dito, and ver → visto. Learn these as individual forms rather than adding a regular ending.

Form

ter + past participle: tinha feito, tinha escrito. Some verbs have two participles: aceitar → aceitado / aceito; pagar → pagado / pago.

Usage

• Use irregular participles such as feito and escrito after ter when describing a completed action.
• With verbs that have two forms, careful usage favors the regular form after ter (tinha aceitado) and the irregular form after ser (foi aceito). In everyday Brazilian Portuguese, irregular forms after ter also occur.

Examples

• Quando cheguei, ela já tinha feito o jantar. — When I arrived, she had already made dinner.
• Eu tinha aceitado o convite antes de saber a data. — I had accepted the invitation before I knew the date.
• O convite foi aceito ontem. — The invitation was accepted yesterday.
• Ele já tinha escrito a mensagem. — He had already written the message.

Common mistake

❌ Ela tinha fazido o jantar.

✅ Ela tinha feito o jantar.

Fazer has the irregular participle feito, not fazido. Use feito after ter as well.

Remember

Feito, escrito, dito, and visto have no regular alternative. For double-form verbs, remember tinha aceitado versus foi aceito as a useful standard pattern.