In this lesson we’re going to tackle past participles in Portuguese, i.e. particípios passadospast participles
So what is a past participle? A past participle is a verb form that can…
- function as an adjective – porco assadoroasted pork
- combine with the past tense of ser to use passive voice – Quando é que a casa foi construída?When was the house built?, When is it that the house was built?
- combine with other auxiliary verbs (such as ter) to form different compound tenses, such as the pretérito mais-que-perfeito composto – Ela já tinha falado com os paisShe had already spoken with her parents Aquele filme? Já o tinha visto, sim.That film? I had already seen it, yes. Tínhamos escrito ao professor para lhe pedirmos as notas.We had written to the professor to ask for our grades.
Past Participles and Auxiliary Verbs
Just as in English, you typically can’t use a past participle without a verbo auxiliarauxiliary verb . Auxiliary verbs are sometimes called “helping verbs” because they help express the tense, mood, or voice of the sentence’s main verb.
In the examples above, the verb terto have is one auxiliary verb.
Sound complicated? Worry not! When it comes to past participles, there are only five auxiliary verbs you need to know. You’ll probably recognize these from previous lessons:
terto have serto be (permanent) estarto be (temporary) ficarto become, to stay haverto have, to exist
Learning More
Next, we’ll explore the rules for using these auxiliary verbs with regular past participles. Then, you’ll have the opportunity to practice within the lessons of this unit before we move on to irregular past participles and double past participles.
Ainda não percebi quando usar “ter + particípio” ou o pretérito perfeito. Por exemplo, no sentido seguinte: Já têm anunciado as novas medidas? vs. Já anunciaram as novas medidas? (Have they announced the new measures yet?). Agradeço antecipadamente a ajuda.
Olá! Para nós, “ter + particípio” geralmente não corresponde ao present perfect, mas sim ao present perfect continuous. Portanto:
– Have they announced the new measures yet? = Já anunciaram as novas medidas?
– Have they been announcing the new measures yet? = Já têm anunciado as novas medidas?
Doubles
Agradecer the example given was “estamos muito agradecidos à nossa professora” but in the lesson the irregular pp was “grato” i could not find “grato “ using the reverse conjugation website ( which I believe is biased towards brazilian ) thanks
Olá. Yes, as discussed in this Learning Note, the irregular past participle of ‘agradecer’ is ‘grato’, so I understand that you would expect to see ‘estar grato’ and not ‘estar agradecido’.
What happens is that the pair ‘grato/agradecido’ is a bit of an exception – it is rather common for us to use both types of past participles regardless of the auxiliary verb at hand (except ‘ser’, which is preferably only paired with the irregular pp ‘grato’). So, both ‘estar grato’ and ‘estar agradecido’ sound pretty natural.