Precisas

Precisas is a term in Portuguese with multiple grammatical uses. It functions as the feminine plural form of the adjective preciso/precisa, meaning precise, exact, or necessary, when describing feminine plural nouns. It also appears as a verb form: the second-person singular present indicative of the verb precisar, especially in European Portuguese and in dialects that use the tu form, where tu precisas means “you need.” In Brazilian Portuguese, the same meaning is commonly conveyed with você precisa, though tu precisas can occur regionally.

As an adjective, precisas describes qualities such as accuracy or clarity. For example, instruções precisas refers to precise instructions, informações precisas to precise information, and medidas precisas to exact measurements. The sense can extend to “necessary” in phrases like termos precisos, indicating requirements that are exact or essential for a given context.

As a verb form, precisas is part of the present tense of precisar, a verb meaning “to need” or “to require.” The full present tense paradigm is: eu preciso, tu precisas, ele/ela precisa, nós precisamos, vós precisais, eles/elas precisam. The separable meanings in everyday use can depend on regional variation and the surrounding grammar.

Etymology traces precisas back to the Latin prae- and caedere/caesus roots related to cutting or separating, which evolved in Portuguese to express notions of exactness and necessity. The word is closely related to the noun precisão and the adjective preciso, sharing a common semantic field around exactness, clarity, and indispensability.

See also: precise, precision, precisar, precisão.