Irregular verbs in Spanish and Portuguese

Introduction

The irregular verbs of the Spanish (Castilian) and Portuguese language are very similar, but we also see differences. In the table below I put some of these differing forms side by side.

Table

Spanish			Portuguese
verb	yo	él	verb	eu	ele
andar ¹	anduve	anduvo	andar ¹	andei	andou
decir	dije	dijo	dizer	disse	disse
traer	traje	trajo	trazer	trouxe	trouxe
ser, ir	fui	fue	ser, ir	fui	foi
estar	estuve	estuvo	estar	estive	esteve
tener	tuve	tuvo	ter	tive	teve
haber	hube	hubo	haver	(houve) 4	houve
caber	cupe	cupo	caber	coube	coube
saber	supe	supo	saber	soube	soube
	sepa	sepa		saiba	saiba
hacer	hice	hizo	fazer	fiz	fez
poder	pude	pudo	poder	pude	pôde
poner	puse	puso	por	pus	pôs
querer	quise	quiso	querer	quis	quis
ver	vi	vio	ver	vi	viu
venir	vine	vino	vir	vim	veio

Observations

The verb “andar” is regular in Portuguese but irregular in Spanish.
In Spanish, the first person of the perfect often ends in -e while the third person form has -o. In Portuguese however the first and third person conjugations are equal.
Where Spanish has “j” (this is [x] phonetically), there is often an “x” in Portuguese. Although mostly a written “x” sounds the same as “ch” ([S] phonetically), this is not the case with these verbs: for example “trouxe” sound as if it were “trousse”.
In the conjugation of “dizer” they indeed even write “disse”. Could it be that in old documents, this was written “dixe”? I think I have seen examples of this.
And in fact they do exist, as becomes clear from this Googles search: +dixe site://purl.pt.
This spelling was most notably used by the author Gaspar Correia. Gaspar Correia lived from 1495 to 1561. The work he wrote, Lendas da Índia, was first published as late as 1858/1864.
“Houve” in the first person is only theoretical, it never occurs in the living language. See Eu houve? Doesn't exist!.