The first compound tense we’re going to talk about is the pretérito perfeito composto do indicativo. To keep it short, and since the focus of this unit will just be the indicativo mood, we’ll just call it pretérito perfeito composto. So let’s get to it!
As you are likely aware, the pretérito perfeito (simple past tense) expresses a finished action that took place in the past. For example:
Passeei o cãoI walked the dog
The pretérito perfeito composto do indicativo, however, suggests continuity and repetition. It’s something that has been happening recently. This corresponds to the present perfect continuous in English.
Tenho passeado o cãoI've been walking the dog
How It Is Formed
The pretérito perfeito composto is formed like this:
auxiliary verb ter in the presente do indicativo tense + past participle of the main verb
In the example above, it was tenho + passeado.
Here are a couple more examples:
Ultimamente, tenho escrito imensoI've been writing a lot lately
A Maria tem trabalhado muito este mêsMaria has been working a lot this month
The Idea of Continuity
There is another way to express this idea of repetition / ongoing actions. You may recall learning about aspectual auxiliary verbs, specifically those that relate to progression, such as the verbs continuar and andar. Guess what? We can combine those verbs with compound tenses to express even more nuanced meanings. (This is known as “periphrastic construction”.)
For example, let’s consider the slightly different implications in these two sentences:
- Temos andado a fazer obras em casaWe have been doing renovations at home – (Auxiliary verb andar in the compound form) Renovations have been done in the past over a period of time. Suggests they may be ongoing, but we don’t know for sure.
- Temos feito obras em casaWe have been doing renovations at home, We've done renovations at home – (Main verb fazer in the compound form) Renovations have been done in the past over a period of time. Suggests they may not be ongoing, but we don’t know for sure.
So, without additional context, these two sentences could overlap in meaning. Information about the time / frequency would help clarify. For example, here we’ve added more context (in bold):
- Temos andado a fazer obras em casa esta semana, está um caos aquiloWe've been doing work on the house this week, it's a mess – The work is still ongoing
- Ao longo dos anos temos feito várias obras em casa, e acho que agora está perfeitaOver the years we've done a lot of work on the house, and I think it's perfect now – The work was ongoing for years, but now it has stopped.
As you can see from these examples, the distinction often mirrors the difference in usage between “have been doing” and “have done” in English. However, Portuguese has its own nuances, so it’s not always that straightforward. With lots of exposure to Portuguese, certain wording will eventually start to feel more natural. In the meantime, luckily the differences are quite subtle, and adding more context will usually clarify any doubts.
Comments
I think I understand the difference between PPS and the composto:
“Estudei português+ = “I studied Portguese” (past and done) versus
“Tenho estudado português” = “I have been studying Portugues” (and may be continuing).
My question is: Can you express the same “have been studying” with estar in the imperfect + a + infinitive?
“Estava a estudar Português.” Does this also mean “I have been studying Português”? Does this usage of imperfect of estar + a + infinitive make any sense?
Your first two examples are indeed correct 🙂 But to say “have been studying” using the auxiliary verb estar, it’s not the imperfect that you should use, but again the compound past tense. Here’s the difference between the two:
– Estava a estudar português -> I was studying Portuguese
– Tenho estado a estudar português -> I have been studying Portuguese
Apart from pretérito perfeito composto, what about other periphrastic constructions that also indicate actions/events/states that started in the past and continue to the present? Take the verb “fazer” as an example:
1. tem feito
2. anda a fazer
3. tem andado a fazer
4. tem estado a fazer
5. tem vindo a fazer
All of the above roughly translate to “have been doing” in English but have subtle differences that I still can’t grasp. What are the differences? And why many of them? I’m very confused.
For example, “I have been learning Portuguese in recent months.” I can say it in European Portuguese in 5 ways:
1. Tenho aprendido português nos últimos meses.
2. Ando a aprender português nos últimos meses.
3. Tenho andado a aprender português nos últimos meses.
4. Tenho estado a aprender português nos últimos meses.
5. Tenho vindo a aprender português nos últimos meses.
Can you help me understand their differences?
Olá 🙂 Will reply based on average patterns of use:
– ‘Ter feito’ and ‘ter andado a fazer’ would normally refer to something you’ve been doing for a more prolonged period of time, i.e. not just the same day or the day before, but the last week, month, year or beyond, as informed by context. For example, we might ask “O que é que tens feito nestes últimos anos?” (What have you been up to these last few years?) to an acquaintance we haven’t seen for a couple years.
– ‘Andar a fazer’ and ‘ter estado a fazer’ allow references to both the immediate past and a more prolonged one, but not as prolonged as the previous options can be. These are preferably shorter-term phrases. For example, a parent might walk up to their child’s room and ask “O que é que andas/tens estado a fazer?” in reference to the last few hours only.
– ‘Ter vindo’ is a bit different from the others, as we don’t use it simply to express continuity, but outcome. That is, we wouldn’t say “Tenho vindo a aprender português”, but we could definitely say “O meu português tem vindo a melhorar”, expressing the results of your study over time. There’s no reference time frame for this one, it’s whatever applies in context. The other expressions can also be used in this sense (and actually sound more informal), but not the other way around.
In your example, and following the general principles above, I would say any option from 1 to 4 works, as it’s not such a long period of time overall. 2 and 3 might be the most casual and idiomatic-sounding ones 🙂
Thank you for your reply Joseph. From your answer and other sources about this topic, I think I have a rough understanding, summarized like this:
andar a fazer: informal, less consistent, shorter-term
ter andado a fazer: informal, less consistent, longer-term.
ter estado a fazer: more formal, more consistent, shorter-term
ter feito: more formal, more consistent, longer-term
ter vindo a fazer: very formal, outcome of a gradual progress
Is my understanding correct?
Yes, this works well as an outline! Although it shouldn’t be considered rigid, as there is always some variability around the use of these expressions from person to person. I would just say that ‘neutral’ could be a better term than ‘more formal’, as ‘ter estado a fazer’ and ‘ter feito’ can be used at all levels of formality. ‘Ter vindo a fazer’, while not necessarily very formal, is indeed more formal than all other options.