fiquei

Fiquei is a Portuguese verb form that serves as the first-person singular in the pretérito perfeito do indicativo of ficar. The basic sense of ficar includes staying or remaining in a place, as well as becoming or ending up in a certain state. Therefore, ficou can mean both a physical act (I stayed) and a change of condition (I became).

As a simple past tense form, ficou describes an action that was completed in the past or a state that was reached at a specific past moment. It is commonly used in everyday speech to recount past experiences, impressions, or outcomes. For example: Eu fiquei em casa ontem (I stayed at home yesterday) and Fiquei feliz com as notícias (I was happy with the news). The latter illustrates the change-of-state nuance, where ficar expresses a transition rather than a permanent attribute.

Ficar also appears in many light, idiomatic constructions. Ficar sabendo de algo (to learn about something), ficar rico (to become rich), and ficar com alguém (to end up staying with someone or to keep something) are frequent patterns. In contexts of narration or dialogue, ficar is often paired with adjectives or prepositional phrases to convey a sense of result or consequence.

Conjugation notes: ficou is the pretérito perfeito, first-person singular form. The verb ficar is regular in this tense for -ar verbs, with predictable endings for other persons (ficaste, ficou, ficamos, ficaram, etc.). Across Lusophone varieties, the form ficou is widely understood and used in both Brazilian and European Portuguese, though pronouns and some endings may vary by dialect.