perderam

Perderam is the third-person plural preterite indicative form of the Portuguese verb perder, meaning they lost or they missed. The verb perder corresponds to lose, miss, or waste, depending on context. As the preterite form, perderam is used to describe actions completed in the past when the subject is they.

In standard Portuguese, perder is a regular -er verb in the preterite, with forms such as eu perdi, tu perdeste, ele perdeu, nós perdemos, vós perdestes, eles perderam. The form perderam specifically indicates a past event involving multiple people. It is commonly used in both Brazilian and European Portuguese, and the subject is usually explicit or implied from context.

Usage notes include its broad applicability: you can say that someone lost an object (Eles perderam as chaves), missed a transport or event (Perderam o ônibus, perderam o trem, perderam a oportunidade), or even lost a game or competition (Eles perderam o jogo). It can also appear with reflexive or adverbial modifiers to convey wasting time (perderam tempo).

Etymology traces perder back to Latin perdere, meaning to lose or ruin, with cognates in other Romance languages such as Spanish perder. Perderam, as a finite past form, is a key part of narrating past events in Portuguese and complements other verbal tenses built from perder.