The past

Past actions with regular verbs: falei, comi, abri#

The spelling of the eu form. Before the ending -ei, the last consonant of an -ar stem changes in writing, so that the sound of the stem is unchanged: c becomes qu (ficar, fiquei; tocar, toquei), g becomes gu (chegar, cheguei; pagar, paguei) and ç becomes c (começar, comecei; almoçar, almocei). The other persons are regular: ficaste, chegou, começámos.

Falámos and falamos. In the -ar verbs, the nós form of the perfeito is written with an acute accent in Portugal, falámos, and the nós form of the present without one, falamos. The 1990 spelling agreement makes this accent optional, so falamos is also correct for the past, but falámos is the usual spelling in Portugal. In the -er and -ir verbs the two tenses have the same nós form: comemos, abrimos.

The present or the perfeito. The present is used for now and for habits, the perfeito for what is over: Hoje trabalho em casa; ontem trabalhei no escritório. Words of time usually show which is meant: hoje, agora and todos os dias are used with the present, ontem, há dois dias and na semana passada with the perfeito. In the nós form of -er and -ir verbs, only these words show the tense: Hoje comemos peixe (present), Ontem comemos carne (perfeito).

• Comprei um casaco novo no sábado.I bought a new coat on Saturday.
• O comboio partiu às dez.The train left at ten.
• Jantámos num restaurante perto do rio.We had dinner in a restaurant near the river.
• Os meus primos chegaram ontem à noite.My cousins arrived last night.
• Paguei a conta e voltei para casa.I paid the bill and went back home.

Irregular verbs in the past: fui, tive, estive, fiz, disse#

Ser and ir. The two verbs have the same perfeito, fui, foste, foi, fomos, foram; the sentence shows which is meant: Fui ao mercado (“I went”), O jantar foi ótimo (“was”).

Ter and estar. Ter has the stem tiv- (tive, teve), estar the stem estiv- (estive, esteve).

Fazer, dizer, trazer. Fazer has the stem fiz-: fiz, fizeste, fez, fizemos, fizeram. Dizer has disse, disseste, disse, dissemos, disseram, trazer trouxe, trouxeste, trouxe, trouxemos, trouxeram; in these two verbs the eu and ele forms are the same.

Vir, ver, dar. Vir: vim, vieste, veio, viemos, vieram. Ver: vi, viste, viu, vimos, viram. Dar takes the endings of the -er verbs: dei, deste, deu, demos, deram. Vimos is both the perfeito of ver (“we saw”) and the present of vir (“we come”).

Poder, pôr, querer, saber. Poder: pude, pudeste, pôde, pudemos, puderam, the circumflex of pôde telling it from the present pode. Pôr: pus, puseste, pôs, pusemos, puseram. Querer: quis, quiseste, quis, quisemos, quiseram. Saber: soube, soubeste, soube, soubemos, souberam.

Sair and cair. These verbs take the regular -ir endings, with a written accent on the i wherever it is stressed and pronounced apart from the vowel before it: saí, saíste, saiu, saímos, saíram; caí, caíste, caiu, caímos, caíram.

Haver. In the sense of “there is”, haver has one perfeito form, houve, for “there was” and “there were”: Houve uma festa, Houve dois concertos. It is explained in There was, there were: havia and houve, always singular.

• No verão fomos a Madrid de carro.In the summer we went to Madrid by car.
• A festa foi muito divertida.The party was great fun.
• Estive no Porto três dias.I was in Porto for three days.
• O meu irmão fez o jantar e trouxe o vinho.My brother made dinner and brought the wine.
• Os avós vieram de comboio.My grandparents came by train.
• Pus as chaves na mala.I put the keys in my bag.

The perfeito in full: the five forms of each verb#

Saying the five forms aloud, in the order eu, tu, ele / ela / você, nós, eles / elas / vocês, fixes the endings of each conjugation and the stem of each irregular verb.

Saying when: ontem, há dois dias, já, ainda não, nunca#

• Anteontem fui ao dentista.I went to the dentist the day before yesterday.
• Mudei de casa no ano passado.I moved house last year.
• O autocarro saiu há cinco minutos.The bus left five minutes ago.
• Já leste o jornal de hoje? — Ainda não.Have you read today’s paper? — Not yet.
• Nunca comi polvo.I’ve never eaten octopus.

An activity that went on for a while: estive a estudar#

• Estive a lavar o carro toda a manhã.I spent all morning washing the car.
• Ontem esteve a chover o dia todo.Yesterday it rained all day.
• Estivemos a conversar até à meia-noite.We were chatting until midnight.
• O que estiveste a fazer no sábado?What were you doing on Saturday?

Habits and descriptions in the past: falava, comia, era, tinha#

The four irregular verbs. Only four verbs are irregular in the imperfeito: ser (era, eras, era, éramos, eram), ter (tinha, tinhas, tinha, tínhamos, tinham), vir (vinha, vinhas, vinha, vínhamos, vinham) and pôr (punha, punhas, punha, púnhamos, punham).

Habits. It expresses what happened regularly in the past, as English “used to” or “would” does, often with antigamente or dantes (“in the old days”), nessa altura (“at that time”), quando era pequeno (“when I was little”), sempre, todos os dias or aos domingos: Dantes ia a pé para a escola. The verb costumar in the imperfeito says the same: Costumava ir a pé.

Descriptions. It describes people, places, the weather and states in the past: A casa era antiga, Estava frio, O Rui estava cansado, Havia muita gente. Ser gives what someone or something was like, estar a state at that moment, as in the present.

Age and time. Age and the time of day in the past are in the imperfeito: Tinha seis anos, Eram oito horas.

An action in progress. It also expresses an action that was going on, usually with estar a: Estava a ler, explained in What was going on: estava a + infinitive.

• Aos domingos almoçávamos em casa da avó.On Sundays we used to have lunch at my grandmother’s.
• Quando era pequena, não gostava de leite.When I was little, I didn’t like milk.
• O quarto era pequeno, mas tinha uma janela grande.The room was small, but it had a big window.
• Estava sol e as ruas estavam cheias.It was sunny and the streets were full.
• Dantes os meus tios vinham cá todos os verões.My aunt and uncle used to come here every summer.

The imperfeito in full: the five forms of each verb#

Saying the five forms aloud fixes the two sets of endings, -ava and -ia, and the four irregular verbs. The eu form and the ele form are the same in every verb; the nós form is the only one with an accent.

There was, there were: havia and houve, always singular#

• Na aldeia havia só uma loja.There was only one shop in the village.
• Havia muitos barcos no rio.There were a lot of boats on the river.
• No sábado houve uma tempestade no Algarve.There was a storm in the Algarve on Saturday.
• No ano passado houve três festas na rua.There were three street parties last year.

Polite requests and wishes: queria, podia, gostava de#

• Queria dois bilhetes para Coimbra, por favor.I’d like two tickets to Coimbra, please.
• Podia fechar a janela?Could you close the window?
• Gostava de visitar os Açores.I’d like to visit the Azores.
• Adorava ir ao concerto, mas tenho de trabalhar.I’d love to go to the concert, but I have to work.

What was going on: estava a + infinitive#

• Às oito estava a tomar o pequeno-almoço.At eight I was having breakfast.
• Os miúdos estavam a jogar à bola no jardim.The kids were playing football in the garden.
• O que estavas a fazer quando eu liguei?What were you doing when I rang?
• Estava a nevar na montanha.It was snowing in the mountains.

The perfeito or the imperfeito: telling a story#

Once or as a habit. A single, complete event is in the perfeito, a repeated or lasting one in the imperfeito: Ontem fui à praia (once), Dantes ia à praia todos os dias (a habit).

The scene and the events. The time, the weather, the people and the places are described in the imperfeito; what happened is told in the perfeito: Era domingo e estava calor. A Joana pegou na bicicleta e saiu. Words such as um dia, de repente and depois introduce an event, in the perfeito.

An action interrupted. An action in progress is in the imperfeito, usually with estar a; the event that interrupts it is in the perfeito, often after quando: Estava a tomar banho quando a luz se apagou.

Two actions at the same time. Two actions that went on together are both in the imperfeito, linked by enquanto (“while”): Enquanto eu lavava a loiça, o Pedro secava. Enquanto is explained with the other linking words in Linking words: por isso, pois, como, enquanto, desde que.

Foi or era, esteve or estava. English “was” has four Portuguese equivalents. Foi judges a complete event as a whole (O concerto foi ótimo), era describes what someone or something was like (A cidade era bonita). Esteve is a stay or a state with a beginning and an end (Esteve doente uma semana), estava a state at a moment of the story (Quando cheguei, estava doente).

• Quando éramos novos, passávamos as férias no Algarve.When we were young, we spent our holidays in the Algarve.
• Eram dez horas e chovia. De repente, alguém bateu à porta.It was ten o’clock and it was raining. Suddenly someone knocked at the door.
• Estava a atravessar a ponte quando vi o Rui.I was crossing the bridge when I saw Rui.
• A viagem foi longa, mas o hotel era muito bom.The journey was long, but the hotel was very good.

The past before the past: tinha feito#

The negative and questions. Não, ainda não and nunca are placed before tinha: Ainda não tinha jantado, Nunca tinha visto o mar. An object pronoun is placed between não and tinha: Não o tinha visto. A question has the order of a statement: Já tinhas estado em Lisboa?

• Quando chegámos à estação, o comboio já tinha partido.When we got to the station, the train had already left.
• A Inês tinha deixado as chaves no carro.Inês had left the keys in the car.
• Nunca tinha comido um peixe tão bom.I had never eaten such good fish.
• Ainda não tínhamos acabado quando a aula terminou.We hadn’t finished yet when the class ended.

In short