caíram

Caíram is a Portuguese verb form, specifically the third-person plural pretérito perfeito do indicativo of the verb cair, meaning "they fell" or "you (plural) fell" in contexts where vocês are used. It indicates a completed action in the past and can refer to a literal fall or to a figurative decline, such as prices or numbers.

Morphology and usage notes: The form combines the stem cai- with the regular pretérito ending -ram for the third person plural. The accent on í marks the stressed syllable, signaling the past tense. Caíram is irregular in its vowel stem in the preterite, as other forms of the verb cair (e.g., caí, caíste, caiu, caímos) share the same stem variation.

Common contexts: Literally, caíram appears in sentences like Eles caíram da árvore (They fell from the tree) or Os jogadores caíram no campo (The players collapsed on the field). Figuratively, it is used for declines or drops, such as Os preços caíram recentemente (Prices fell recently) or As ações caíram após o anúncio.

Etymology and related forms: Cair comes from Latin cadere, meaning “to fall.” Related forms include cai, caímos, caiu, and caímos, used across different persons and tenses. The verb belongs to a class of irregular -ir verbs in Portuguese that exhibit a vowel change in the past tense.

See also: cair (verb), pretérito perfeito, Portuguese conjugation, irregular verbs.