Tropeçaste

Tropeçaste is a Portuguese verb form that functions as the second-person singular pretérito perfeito do indicativo of tropeçar, meaning you stumbled or you tripped. It is used when addressing someone informally with the pronoun tu, which is common in European Portuguese and in some Brazilian dialects that preserve the tu form. In many parts of Brazil, the corresponding everyday form is tropeçou, used with você or vocês.

Conjugation and spelling notes: tropeçar is a regular -çar verb. In the pretérito perfeito do indicativo, the second-person singular form is tropeçaste. The spelling includes a cedilla under the letter c (ç) before a, o, or u to preserve the soft /s/ sound, as in tropeçaste. In standard European Portuguese, you would also hear tu tropeçaste and you tropeçou with the appropriate pronoun forms: tu tropeçaste versus você tropeçou.

Usage and context: The form can denote a physical stumble, such as tripping over an obstacle, or a figurative stumble, such as making a mistake or encountering a setback. In written Portuguese that uses the Brazilian norm, the equivalent past tense with você is tropeçou, and the pronoun tu is less common in formal contexts. Regional variation exists in both pronunciation and preference for tu versus você.

See also: tropeçar.