This study focuses on the acquisition of subject–verb agreement in Brazilian Portuguese. A quantitative analysis of the data produced by a Brazilian child between the ages of 3;02.07 and 3;04.08 is presented. The overall error rate is low. However, a further and more detailed analysis reveals important contrasts both in the frequency of production of different verb inflections (as regards the person/number variables within the verb morphological system) and in the rate of subject–verb agreement errors associated with them. Our findings not only suggest that subject–verb agreement may be acquired piecemeal, but also that the learning of particular verb inflections may itself be a gradual process. Alternatives to the idea of rule-governed production – such as the child's reproducing frozen subject–verb strings previously produced by adults and blending different frozen strings into novel combinations – are discussed as processes which can shed some light on the pattern of both erroneous and correct production shown by this child.