Portuguese Verbs That Look Like Mistakes in Spanish: Resolvido, Devolvido and More

Looking for a clear guide to the past participle in Portuguese? Here's the short version: most Portuguese past participles are regular, so "resolver" becomes "resolvido" (resolved), "devolver" becomes "devolvido" (returned) and "desenvolver" becomes "desenvolvido" (developed). Even "morrer" gives us "morrido" (died), and here in Brazil we use all of these every single day.

The tricky part is the irregular past participles in Portuguese. Some verbs have two forms, like "entregado" and "entregue" or "morrido" and "morto", and each one goes with different helper verbs. On top of that, if you also speak Spanish, the regular forms look like serious mistakes, because Spanish says "resuelto", "devuelto" and "muerto". That's exactly why Portuguese vs Spanish verb conjugation trips up so many learners.

Below you'll find each verb with everyday phrases and their English translation, an audio track to hear the pronunciation and a video where I explain everything. If you want the verbs that really change when you conjugate them, check out my list of irregular verbs in Portuguese with PDF, and for the bigger picture, the differences between Spanish and Portuguese.

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Listen to the Phrases in Audio

Hearing the phrases out loud is the fastest way to get used to "resolvido", "devolvido" and "morrido". Hit play, repeat each phrase in Portuguese and, if you want to polish the sounds that are hardest for English speakers, check out my guide to Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation.

Phrases in Portuguese

These everyday phrases put each Portuguese verb next to its English translation, so you can see every participle in Portuguese inside a real sentence. Read them without translating word for word and you'll get used to the way we say it in Brazil much faster.

Verb Resolver: Resolvido / Resolved

Yes, resolvido exists and it's the correct form: the past participle of "resolver" is regular in Portuguese, just like "resolved" in English, so we never say anything like the Spanish "resuelto". You use it with "ser", "estar" and "ter": "o problema está resolvido", "eu já tinha resolvido".

• Todos os problemas foram resolvidos.
• All the problems were resolved.

Verb Desenvolver: Desenvolvido / Developed

"Desenvolvido" is correct and means "developed": "desenvolver" is the verb we use in Brazil to develop a project, an idea or a skill. Even though "envolver" can mean "to wrap", "desenvolver" has nothing to do with unwrapping anything.

• Esse projeto já está muito desenvolvido.
• This project is already very well developed.

Verb Devolver: Devolvido / Returned

Devolvido or devuelto? In Portuguese it's always devolvido, with the -ido ending, even though Spanish says "devuelto". The same goes for the other verbs ending in -olver, like resolver and envolver. If English is your reference, it's easy: think of "returned", a perfectly regular form.

• O carro foi devolvido sem nenhum problema.
• The car was returned with no problems at all.

Verb Envolver: Envolvido / Involved

"Envolvido" is the past participle of "envolver" and it almost always translates as "involved" or "mixed up in something". You'll hear it a lot in the news and in everyday conversation: "estar envolvido em um projeto", "ficar envolvido com alguém".

• Eu não tinha nem ideia que ele tava envolvido nesse escândalo.
• I had no idea he was involved in this scandal.

Verb Voltar: Voltado / Gone back

"Voltado" comes from "voltar", the verb we use in Brazil for "to come back" or "to go back". Since "voltar" is a regular -ar verb, its past participle ends in -ado, nothing like the Spanish "vuelto".

• Se eu fosse você eu teria voltado pra lá.
• If I were you, I would have gone back there.

Verb Morrer: Morrido / Died

"Morrido" is correct when it goes with "ter" or "haver": "ele tinha morrido" (he had died). With "ser" or "estar" we use "morto": "ele está morto" (he is dead). It works a lot like "died" and "dead" in English, so morrido or morto is easier than it looks. For more ways to talk about this topic, check out the ways to say die in Portuguese.

• Quando eu cheguei lá ele já tinha morrido.
• When I got there, he had already died.

Verb Traduzir: Traduziu / Translated

"Traduziu" is the simple past of "traduzir" and means "translated" (he or she translated). In Portuguese, verbs ending in -uzir are regular in the past tense, so "traduziu", "produziu" and "conduziu" all follow the same pattern. If you know Spanish, notice there's no "j" like in "tradujo".

• Ela traduziu o documento completo sem nenhum erro.
• She translated the whole document without a single mistake.

Verb Progredir: Progredido / Progressed

"Progredido" is the past participle of "progredir" (to progress), and it mostly sounds strange because learners rarely come across the verb. We use it to talk about progress in school, at work or with your health.

• Fico feliz de que você tenha progredido.
• I'm glad you've made progress.

Verb Entregar: Entregue / Delivered

"Entregar" has two past participles in Portuguese, which is why so many learners ask "entregue or entregado?". We use "entregue" with "ser" and "estar" ("foi entregue") and "entregado" with "ter" ("tinha entregado"). In everyday Brazilian Portuguese, "entregue" is by far the most common, and you'll even hear "tinha entregue".

• As provas foram entregues ao diretor do colégio.
• The exams were handed in to the school principal.

Verb Produzir: Produziu / Produced

"Produziu" is the simple past of "produzir" and means "produced". It works just like "traduziu": Portuguese keeps the "z" and the -iu ending, while Spanish would say "produjo".

• Ele produziu muitos vídeos ensinando português.
• He produced lots of videos teaching Portuguese.

Why do these Portuguese verbs look like mistakes in Spanish?

Because almost every past participle in Portuguese is regular: -ar verbs end in -ado, and -er and -ir verbs end in -ido, while Spanish kept irregular forms like "resuelto", "devuelto" and "muerto". That's why those of us from Brazil say resolvido, devolvido and morrido without thinking twice. English is a mix: "resolved" and "returned" are regular, but "died" and "dead" split the same way "morrido" and "morto" do.

That said, Portuguese has its own irregular past participles, and they're the ones that confuse learners the most: "feito", "dito", "visto", "posto" and "aberto" (done, said, seen, put and opened). Do you know when "feito" means "done" and when it's used to mean "just like"? I explain it in my post about what feito means in Portuguese.

And if you noticed the "tinha morrido" and the "teria voltado" in the phrases, that's because in Brazil we build compound tenses with "ter" instead of "haver"; I cover it in ter vs haver in Portuguese. Translating these forms word for word from Spanish is one of the most common sources of Portuñol.

Most common irregular verbs in Portuguese

Irregular verbs in Portuguese are the ones that change their stem or ending when you conjugate them, like "ser", "ir", "ter" or "fazer", and many of them don't follow the pattern you'd expect from English or Spanish. In the video I show you which ones are worth learning first.

You don't need to spend all your time memorizing conjugations. Focus on the ones that are completely different from what you already know.

(Full post here)