ouviste

Ouviste is a form of the Portuguese verb ouvir, meaning “to hear” or “to listen.” It is the second-person singular preterite (past simple) form, used with the informal pronoun tu. The form is common in European Portuguese and occurs in some Brazilian dialects or contexts where tu is used; in many Brazilian varieties, when addressing someone with você, the corresponding past tense form is ouviu.

Conjugation and usage notes: In European Portuguese, the standard past tense forms include tu ouviste, ele ouviu, nós ouvimos, vós ouvistes, eles ouviram. In Brazilian Portuguese, the tú form is less universal, and speakers often use você ouviu to express the same meaning. The sentence Tu ouviste aquelas notícias? would translate as “Did you hear those news?” or more idiomatically in places using você, “Você ouviu aquela notícia?” The form ouviste can appear in informal speech, regional speech, or in written dialogue to reflect a character’s use of tu.

Etymology: ouvir comes from Latin audire, and ouviste is derived from the regular preterite formation for the verb ouvir in the second-person singular, following the pattern of other irregular -ir verbs in Portuguese, with the characteristic vowel changes that occur in the preterite for this verb.

See also: forms of ouvir in other tenses and moods, regional variations of second-person pronouns in Portuguese, comparison with the third-person past você ouviu.

Examples:

- Tu ouviste o barulho? (Did you hear the noise?)

- Se tu ouviste algo, avise-me. (If you heard anything, let me know.)