In this Learning Note, we’ll discuss a verb tense called the pretérito imperfeito do indicativo. That’s a pretty long name, so for simplicity, let’s refer to it as the imperfeitoimperfect !
This tense is known by a number of different names in English: past continuous, past progressive, or imperfect past.
The imperfeito refers to something that took place in the past that was ongoing or that did not have a clear endpoint. It imparts this idea of continuity that the other pretéritos (past tenses) don’t have, which makes it ideal to narrate past events, as well as to describe past habits. Here’s one example:
Eu comia sopa todos os dias.I used to eat soup every day.
Notice how I’m not referring to just one time that I ate soup; I’m referring to the idea that I ate soup regularly for a period of time.
The translation for a verb in the imperfeito can vary. For example, comia could translate to “I used to eat…”, “I was eating…”, “I ate…”, or “I would eat…”, depending on the context. This is why it’s important to understand the idea behind the imperfect, rather than tying it strictly to one translation.
But first, let’s learn which verb endings to use…
Conjugating Verbs in the Imperfeito
Conjugating regular verbs in the imperfeito:
| -ar verb ending | -er/-ir verb ending | |
| eu | -ava | -ia |
| tu | -avas | -ias |
| ele/ela/você | -ava | -ia |
| nós | -ávamos | -íamos |
| eles/elas/vocês | -avam | -iam |
Three examples of irregular verbs in the imperfeito:
| ser (to be) | ter (to have) | pôr (to put) | |
| eu | era | tinha | punha |
| tu | eras | tinhas | punhas |
| ele/ela/você | era | tinha | punha |
| nós | éramos | tínhamos | púnhamos |
| eles/elas/vocês | eram | tinham | punham |
When and How to Use the Imperfeito
Let’s look at an example for each of the different contexts in which you can use the imperfeito:
- When, with our thoughts, we travel to the past and describe what was then the present:
- Eu comia, bebia e apanhava sol junto ao mar.I was eating, drinking, and sunbathing by the sea.
- To indicate an action that was taking place while another occurred:
- Estava no duche quando o telefone tocou.I was in the shower when the phone rang.
- To describe a habit or actions that happened repeatedly:
- Eu corria 10km todos os dias.I used to run 10km every day.
- When stating past facts that can be considered permanent or constant:
- In place of the conditional, to state a consequence of an action or event that didn’t or couldn’t happen:
- Se lá estivesse, tinha contado a verdade.If I were there, I would have told the truth.
- Sometimes, depending on the context, the present tense might sound a bit rude. In order to sound more polite when asking for something or placing an order, you might want to use the imperfeito. In these situations, it’s sometimes referred to as the Imperfeito de CortesiaCourtesy Imperfect :
- Era um café e um copo de água.I'd like a coffee and a glass of water.
- Queria uma tosta mista, por favor.I'd like a ham and cheese sandwich, please.
- Queria falar contigo depois.I wanted to talk to you afterwards. – This sounds less severe/urgent than Quero falar contigo depois.I want to talk to you afterwards.
- At the start of folk tales and legends, to vaguely situate the story:
- Era uma vez um guerreiro...There was once a warrior... – This is mostly seen with the verb ser, just like the example.
Adverbs Used with the Imperfeito
You may notice that there are certain adverbs that are commonly used with the imperfeito, such as:
- antigamentein the past, previously
- antesbefore
- às vezessometimes
- de vez em quandoonce in a while
- em temposat times
Perfeito vs. Imperfeito
Sometimes it’s tricky to decide which past tense to use! For example, what’s the difference between fui ao parque and ia ao parque? Both could translate to I went to the park, but with more context, you’ll see that the implication is different:
- perfeito: Ontem fui ao parque. – Yesterday I went to the park.
- Refers to a one-time action that was completed yesterday.
- imperfeito: Quando eu era mais novo, ia todos os dias ao parque. – When I was younger, I went to the park every day.
- Refers to an ongoing, habitual action that took place repeatedly over time, without a clear end point. i.e. I used to go to the park every day, I would go to the park every day
The pretérito perfeito (simple past) refers to a single event / a momentary, one-time action, while the pretérito imperfeito refers to a past habit, or a continuous action in the past (one that was ongoing).
- perfeito: Eu deixei a mala no carro.I left the suitcase in the car.
- Refers to a one-time occurrence, e.g. I left the suitcase in the car this morning
- imperfeito: Eu deixava a mala no carro.I used to leave the suitcase in the car.
- Refers to a habit / something that continued to happen, e.g. I used to leave the suitcase in the car every morning
Now let’s see a couple sentences containing both tenses, which describe actions that were taking place while another action occurred:
- Ele estava a correr quando ouviu um acidente.He was running when he heard an accident.
- heard (an accident) – ouviu (um acidente) – perfeito – Hearing the accident was a momentary, completely finished event
- was (running) – estava (a correr) – imperfeito – Running is the action that was continuing to take place in this situation
- Fui picado por mosquitos enquanto dormia.I was bitten by mosquitoes while I was sleeping.
- was (bitten) – fui (picado) – perfeito – Here we refer to the completed action of being bitten.
- was sleeping – dormia – imperfeito – The completed action happened during the ongoing action of sleeping.
Since context is so important, be on the look out for how the imperfeito appears in real conversations, and in our Shorties, Podcasts, and Videos. 😉
I was a bit confused by the “vós” conjugation being shown in this lesson. I don’t remember having seen it before, not in the Verbs section or in the other lessons!
Well, vós is the real original second-person plural pronoun in Portuguese, but it’s fallen somewhat out of use over time and is mostly seen as archaic today. Nowadays, the general preference is to replace vós with vocês. Vocês actually shares the same conjugations as the third-person plural pronouns eles and elas (they), instead of the old second-person plural conjugations.
The conjugations for vós are still taught in Portuguese schools from a very young age. In Practice Portuguese, they’re not covered because for the vast majority of our members, they won’t be of use and learning Portuguese is already difficult enough as it is. So, looks like there was a slip up in this Learning Note 🙂 Thanks for noticing it.
Olá. I’m confused by the example for the Imperfeito de Cortesia: “Era um café e um copo de água.” Why do we use the verb “ser” when saying (politely) what we would like? I would have thought “Queria um café e um copo de água” would be the thing to say here. What am I missing? Obrigado.
And you would be right to think so! You can use “Queria” as well in these situations, both are very common.
Thanks for pointing that out, though, I’ll add it to the Learning Note just in case.
Olá. I’m sorry, I wasn’t clear. My confusion was because I didn’t realize that “Era” could be used to make a request, such as when ordering in a restaurant. (That’s why I have used “Queria” up to now.) But I’m very happy to learn this use of “Era”! Obrigado.
yeah I don’t get this. doesn’t it translate as “I used to be a coffee and a glass of water”?
A more direct translation would be something like ‘It would be a coffee and a glass of water’. The Portuguese sentence does not have a subject, it’s impersonal. We can also phrase it in the present tense:
– É um café e um copo de água = It’s a coffee and a glass of water
Many english childrens stories start with Once upon a time……….. Could this be translated as Era uma vez um lobo mau etc ?
Yes, that’s the exact equivalent.
Thank you for all the detailed info and examples on these topics.
Eu conheço uma Sylvia da Silva em Samora de Correia, Portugal!!!
És tu? A esposa do Mateus?
Sou a Luisa Lowe, espousa do Pastor Ken.
Hi, just want to thank you for making this past tense a lot clearer to me. Another confusing area is, when to use daquele instead of aquele, disto instead of isto, deste instead of este etc. My brain is beginning to scramble
Daquela, disto, deste, desse are the combination of de+aquela, de+isto, de+este, de+esse, etc. So, e.g.: o livro da (de+a) menina (the girl’s book); o livro desta (de+esta) menina (this girl’s book) etc.
does imperfect also mean “I could or would …..”
It can have those meanings. For example, when describing repeated past actions (habitual past):
– Ela praticava todos os dias. (She would practice every day)
– Ele conseguia bons resultados naqueles exames. (He could get good results in those exams)
The imperfect can also be sometimes used as an alternative to the conditional, and also take on those same meanings then:
True conditional: Eu não faria isso! (I would not do that!)
Imperfect used as a conditional form: Eu não fazia isso! (I would not do that!)
So helpful.
Cleared up a lot of confusion for me
Thank you..
ERA um café, QUERIA uma tosta, sound like the Conditional to me; I am well aware of the Imperfect and have taught it in French for years but I am missing something here ( even though asked about above by FFP088 and replied to by Eduardo), could someone do a literal breakdown for me, please? My brain seems to like that, lol.
Pat
Olá, Pat. Those are both imperfect conjugations. The conditional has a different structure, derived directly from the infinitive forms of verbs (plus the respective ending for each person). So, for the verb ser, the first-person singular conditional would be seria. For the verb querer, it would be quereria. It’s surprisingly linear (with only 3 exceptions!), considering how crazy Portuguese verbs can be 🙂 Here’s a Learning Note that explains this in detail: The Conditional
Is it less polite to say, “Eu quereria um copo de água” compared to “Eu queria um copo de água”?
Are the conditional and the imperfect past used interchangeably in this type of usage?
For polite requests, the imperfect and the conditional aren’t interchangeable with the verb querer. Each sentence means something different and only the imperfect is suitable for requests:
– “Eu quereria um copo de água” = “I would want a glass of water” (conditional – not used like this)
– “Eu queria um copo de água” = “I would like/I want a glass of water” (imperfect – appropriate)
On the other hand, with the verb ‘gostar’, the conditional is absolutely fine for polite requests and the imperfect is also acceptable:
– “Eu gostaria de (pedir) um copo de água” = “I would like (to ask for) a glass of water (conditional)
– “Eu gostava de (pedir) um copo de água” = “I would like (to ask for) a glass of water” (imperfect)
So, this is not a type of usage where the conditional and the imperfect overlap much; it depends on the verb. What usually happens (in other uses) is that the imperfect can stand in for the conditional, but not the other way around.
– “I wouldn’t know what to do in your place!” = “Eu não saberia o que fazer no teu lugar” (true conditional) = “Eu não sabia o que fazer no teu lugar” (imperfect used as a conditional tense)
– “She used to talk about school a lot” = “Ela falava muito sobre a escola” (true imperfect) =/= “Ela falaria muito sobre a escola” (conditional -> not interchangeable here!)
Also, what is the difference between “Eu estava a dormir” and “Eu dormia”?
No difference at all in the example above; both would be perfectly interchangeable.
Hi,
I was wondering if you could explain this example of using Imperfeito tense:
“Normalmente, eram 6h de amanhã quando me levantava e ia à casa de banho para fazer a minha rotina de higiene mantinal”.
I wonder why we use eram and not foi. When I think of this sentence in English I’d say:
Do we use imperfect tense because there is a word normalmente or maybe we use this tense because it refers to:
“Normally, I used to wake up at 6 in the morning “. thank you:)
The imperfeito is used for past actions that were ongoing and the pretérito is used for a past completed/one-time action. So because it’s something that normally happened, it was ongoing in the past.
In English we might use the same word in both situations. For example: “I woke up at 6” without any other context could mean just a one time thing or it could mean that you woke up at 6 regularly in the past. To clarify, we might say something like “I would wake up at 6 every morning back then” (using the conditional) or “I used to wake up at 6 when I was a kid” or “I woke up at 6 every day when I was kid” and all of those would refer to an ongoing past event.
In Portuguese, this is when the imperfect is used. Using foi / the pretérito would imply that in only one specific instance you woke up at 6. Does that help?
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Agreed!!
Re the «vós»… Nooo! Don’t stop mentioning it! True, it is not much used in Lisbon Portuguese, but Portugal is not just Lisbon, and the Portuguese language is certainly not just Lisbon (I’m from Lisbon, by the way). Travelling around Portugal you’ll hear it, for sure. People might try not to use it when they hear your (mine) Lisbon accent, so as to conform to a standard Portuguese out of politeness, but you’ll hear it being spoken all the time, especially (but not exclusively) in the North of Portugal. Also in other Portuguese-speaking countries. And, indeed, in remote parts of Brazil. So, it is spoken. I find it best to keep it in lessons here and there, just so that learners are aware of it when they encounter it.
Thanks, Luís! Sorry if we’re too grounded on a Lisbon/southern Portuguese perspective, that’s not the intention. We mainly want to acknowledge that, globally speaking, the use of vós is more and more restricted geographically, and the burden of learning Portuguese verbs can be reduced by focusing, at least initially, on what people truly are expected to be able to use anywhere they go. For this reason, vós is currently not actively covered in PP materials, but it does get some occasional features, such as in the Passo a Passo documentary, where it was one of the major linguistic topics: Passo a Passo (O Caminho de Santiago). Since the website content expands and adapts literally every day, this is always something that can be reassessed in the future 🙂
olá! Estou confusada pelo exemplo em cima: “Se lá estivesse, tinha contado a verdade.”
If I was there, I would have told the truth.
Pensei que o imperfeito seria “Se lá estivesse, contava a verdade.” E achava que “Tinha contado” era um outro tipo de conjugação? (i.e. one of the composite past tenses with imperfeito of Ter followed by the past participle of Contar)?
Obrigada em avanço,
Anne Curtis
Olá, Anne! Se estás confusa*, vou tentar ajudar 🙂 Tal como dizes, “tinha contado” corresponde a um tempo composto (pretérito mais-que-perfeito composto do indicativo). Mas nesse exemplo, o foco não está na estrutura verbal completa; só está a ser analisado, isoladamente, o verbo auxiliar ter. Relativamente ao verbo ter, o exemplo apenas tenta demonstrar como o imperfeito muitas vezes é usado no sentido do condicional, dado que na verdade, “tinha (contado)” deve ser interpretado como “teria (contado)”.
Obrigada!
I also noticed that cariocas say,
“Se lhe contasse, você não acreditava!”
instead of saying,
“Se lhe contasse, você não acreditaria!”
Subtle…
Olá,
Posso dizer “Ele corria quando ouviu um acidente” em vez de “Ele estava a correr quando ouviu um acidente”?
Olá! Yes, you can say it, it’s absolutely correct on a grammatical level. However, it sounds very literary and not how people would normally express themselves in daily life. So, it’s something you’ll probably see more in books, newspapers and the like 🙂
Joseph – I was looking through the comments to see if somebody had already asked that question….but, as a supplementary, could you tell me if the form has a Portuguese name?
What form are you referring to?
Hmm, well I think I can report a bug….because not only did my comment get disconnected from the thing I was replying to, but the bit I put in quotation marks got edited out!
Anyway…..If
Eu estava a dormir
and
Eu dormia
Are functionally the same, and the second of those is called imperfeito / preterito imperfeito do indicitivo, does the first form have a name in Portguese?
Thanks for reporting the bug – we’re looking into it 🙂 As for your question, the first form is an example of what we call “conjugação perifrástica” in Portuguese (fancy name!).
Olá!
May I suggest translating:
Se lá estivesse, tinha contado a verdade.
as
If I *were* there, I would have told the truth.
Not only is the English more grammatically correct, but I think this plants a better “seed” for English speakers for when we get to imperfeito de conjuntivo. It certainly helps me to associate that mood with “were” in English.
Thanks!
Olá! Thanks for catching that 🙂 I agree, and have already updated the translation accordingly.
I have been translating “era um copo de agua?” to myself as “would there be a cup of water?”. This is slightly archaic in English, but recognisable, and perhaps more commonly used as a construction in Ireland?
Thank you very much, very clear and to the point with useful examples. keep up the good work!
Olá! Eu tenho dúvidas com o verbo “querer” no passado. Acabei de ver esta frase no livro “Passaporte para português”: Sempre quisemos conhecer-te. Porque é que pps é usado aqui em vez de imperfeito? A razão está conectada com ausência da terminação da vontade? :))
Se eu dissese “Eu queria conhecer-te”, esta frase teria significado que “eu não quero mais te conhecer”?
Obrigada antecipadamente pela explicação!
Olá! É sempre difícil explicar estas nuances 🙂
Em português europeu, após o advérbio “sempre”, só é idiomático usarmos o pretérito perfeito. A combinação do advérbio com o tempo verbal dá um valor muito absoluto à frase e ao desejo que expressa, que pode ou não já ter sido concretizado. A expectativa é que ontem, hoje ou amanhã, esta frase continue a ser verdadeira até o desejo se realizar.
“Queria”, sem o advérbio de tempo, não tem o mesmo peso. Este tempo verbal sugere que num certo tempo passado, este desejo existia, mas sem certeza ou expectativa de que ele continue até hoje – isso só é esclarecido com mais contexto.
Por fim, também podemos usar a construção “queria sempre” (repara que neste caso, o verbo vem antes do advérbio, não depois), mas que só deve ser usada para expressar ações ou intenções repetidas de forma concreta. Por exemplo, “Quando eu cozinhava, ele queria sempre ajudar” (When I cooked, he always wanted to help). É diferente de uma frase como “Ele sempre quis ajudar pessoas” (He has always wanted to help people), que é mais abstrata e tem uma perspetiva de futuro e não ‘do momento’.
Joseph, muito obrigada pela explicação! Graças ao seus exemplos, eu vejo a diferença 👍 Mas agora tenho outra pergunta: há regras sobre posição da palavra “sempre” e outros adverbios em uma frase? Acho que vi exemplos onde “sempre” tanto precedeu quanto antecedeu o verbo.
De nada! Há muitos tipos de advérbios e cada um está sujeito a diferentes padrões, então não é fácil responder à tua questão se considerarmos os advérbios como um todo. Mas em relação ao advérbio ‘sempre’ especificamente, o padrão europeu é que os verbos são preferencialmente colocados antes deste advérbio, exceto quando estão no pretérito perfeito (aí, é idiomático colocar tanto antes como depois). Só no padrão brasileiro é que se colocam os verbos depois de ‘sempre’ com mais frequência.
Is there a difference in meaning between for example Eu estava a dormir and Eu dormia?
There can be, depending on context. “Eu estava a dormir” can only mean “I was sleeping” and by default would be focused on one given moment in the past. It sounds very natural in conversational Portuguese. “Eu dormia” can also be used in the specific sense of “I was sleeping”, but it sounds formal/literary and would be unexpected in everyday conversation. Additionally, “eu dormia” can be used as part of a longer sentence to refer to a general, habitual past action (in the sense of “I used to…” or “I would…”). Some examples to clarify all this:
– Q: Desculpa, acordei-te? / A: Sim. Eu estava a dormir. (Sorry, did I wake you up? / Yes, I was sleeping) – conversational language
– Eu dormia quando ela chegou. (I was sleeping when she arrived) – literary language
– Antigamente, eu dormia muito. (In the past, I used to sleep a lot/…I would sleep a lot) – additional use of “eu dormia”
– Eu dormia com os meus pais quando era bebé. (I used to sleep with my parents when I was a child) – additional use of “eu dormia”
Muito obrigada Joseph!:) agora ficou muito mais claro!