Imperfect Tense in Portuguese

In Brief

The Portuguese pretérito imperfeito presents a past action or situation as a habit, an ongoing process, or background rather than as a completed event: Morávamos em Lisboa means “We used to live in Lisbon.” Regular -ar verbs use endings built on -ava, while -er and -ir verbs use endings built on -ia. English often translates it with “used to,” “would,” or “was/were doing,” but the context—not a single English phrase—determines the Portuguese tense.

Overview

The pretérito imperfeito do indicativo, usually shortened to imperfeito, is one of Portuguese’s main past tenses. A tense is a verb form that locates an action or situation in time. The imperfect looks at something from inside a past period: it does not focus on its beginning, endpoint, or completion.

You will meet this tense around A2 when talking about childhood, former routines, people and places in the past, weather, age, time, feelings, and actions already in progress. It is also essential in storytelling: the imperfect sets the scene, while the preterite (pretérito perfeito) commonly moves the sequence of completed events forward.

For an English-speaking learner, no one English form gives a perfect match. Depending on the sentence, falava can mean “spoke,” “used to speak,” “would speak,” or “was speaking.” Learn the situations that call for the imperfect instead of trying to replace every English past verb mechanically.

How It Works

The core beginner rule

Use the imperfect when a past situation is viewed as:

• habitual or repeated: Todos os dias caminhava até ao trabalho. — “Every day I walked/used to walk to work.”
• ongoing at a particular moment: Às oito, ainda dormíamos. — “At eight, we were still sleeping.”
• descriptive background: A rua era estreita e tinha poucas lojas. — “The street was narrow and had few shops.”
• a continuing state: Ela queria ficar em casa. — “She wanted to stay home.”
• age, clock time, or weather: Eu tinha dez anos. Eram duas horas. Chovia. — “I was ten. It was two o’clock. It was raining.”

Words such as sempre (“always”), normalmente (“normally”), muitas vezes (“often”), todos os dias (“every day”), and naquela época (“at that time”) often support an imperfect meaning. They are clues, not automatic rules.

Regular formation

Start with the infinitive (the dictionary form, such as falar or comer), remove -ar, -er, or -ir, and add the imperfect endings.

Person	falar (to speak)	comer (to eat)	partir (to leave)
eu	falava	comia	partia
tu	falavas	comias	partias
ele / ela / você	falava	comia	partia
nós	falávamos	comíamos	partíamos
vós	faláveis	comíeis	partíeis
eles / elas / vocês	falavam	comiam	partiam

The patterns are:

Verb group	Endings
-ar	-ava, -avas, -ava, -ávamos, -áveis, -avam
-er / -ir	-ia, -ias, -ia, -íamos, -íeis, -iam

Notice the written accents in falávamos, faláveis, comíamos, comíeis, partíamos, and partíeis. They mark the stressed syllable. The first- and third-person singular forms are identical—eu falava and ela falava—so the subject or context tells you who is meant.

Modern everyday Portuguese usually uses vocês rather than vós for plural “you,” especially in Brazil and in most spoken varieties. The vós forms remain useful for reading, regional usage, religious language, and older texts.

The main special verbs

There are very few exceptional patterns. These four high-frequency verbs deserve direct practice:

Person	ser (to be)	ter (to have)	vir (to come)	pôr (to put)
eu	era	tinha	vinha	punha
tu	eras	tinhas	vinhas	punhas
ele / ela / você	era	tinha	vinha	punha
nós	éramos	tínhamos	vínhamos	púnhamos
vós	éreis	tínheis	vínheis	púnheis
eles / elas / vocês	eram	tinham	vinham	punham

Compounds generally keep the pattern of their base verb: manter → mantinha, intervir → intervinha, and propor → propunha. You do not need to memorize every compound at A2; recognize the family resemblance.

Imperfect versus preterite

The difference is not simply “long action” versus “short action.” It is about how the speaker presents the past. The imperfect gives an internal, open, repeated, or background view; the preterite presents an event as a completed whole.

Imperfect: background, routine, process	Preterite: completed event
Morávamos em Lisboa. — We lived/used to live in Lisbon.	Morámos em Lisboa durante dois anos. — We lived in Lisbon for two years.
Eu lia quando ela chegou. — I was reading when she arrived.	Li o livro ontem. — I read the book yesterday.
Fazia bom tempo. — The weather was nice.	Fez bom tempo no fim de semana. — The weather was nice over the weekend.
Ele telefonava todas as noites. — He called every night.	Ele telefonou ontem à noite. — He called last night.

A stated duration does not automatically require either tense. Durante dois anos, morámos em Lisboa treats the two-year stay as a finished block. In a description of life during that period, Naquela época, morávamos em Lisboa treats living there as background.

Two past actions together

An ongoing action often appears in the imperfect when a completed event interrupts it:

Eu tomava banho quando o telefone tocou. — “I was taking a shower when the phone rang.”

Both verbs can also be imperfect if both situations were unfolding together or repeatedly:

Enquanto eu cozinhava, ela punha a mesa. — “While I cooked/was cooking, she set/was setting the table.”

The connector quando does not force one tense, and enquanto does not mechanically force the imperfect. Choose according to the meaning of each verb.

Examples in Context

Portuguese	English	Note
Quando era criança, passava os verões com os meus avós.	When I was a child, I used to spend the summers with my grandparents.	Past setting and repeated habit
Morávamos em Lisboa, perto do rio.	We used to live in Lisbon, near the river.	Continuing past situation
Sempre comia às duas.	I always used to eat at two.	Regular routine
Fazia bom tempo e o mar estava calmo.	The weather was nice and the sea was calm.	Scene-setting description
Ela tinha vinte anos naquela época.	She was twenty at that time.	Age uses ter in Portuguese
Eram quase onze horas.	It was almost eleven o’clock.	Clock time; plural eram with hours
À meia-noite, ainda trabalhávamos.	At midnight, we were still working.	Action in progress at a past time
Eu lia quando a luz se apagou.	I was reading when the light went out.	Ongoing background plus completed event
Enquanto eu preparava o jantar, eles punham a mesa.	While I was preparing dinner, they were setting the table.	Simultaneous unfolding actions
Aos domingos, vínhamos aqui tomar café.	On Sundays, we would come here for coffee.	Repeated action with vir
A casa era pequena, mas tinha um jardim bonito.	The house was small, but it had a beautiful garden.	Description and continuing possession
Naquele tempo, não havia internet em casa.	At that time, there was no internet at home.	Background existence; haver is singular here
Quando vivia no Porto, ia a pé para o trabalho.	When I lived in Porto, I used to walk to work.	A period presented as a routine
Queria pedir-lhe uma informação.	I wanted to ask you for some information.	Polite softening

Common Mistakes

Using the preterite for every English simple past

• Wrong: Quando fui criança, brinquei aqui todos os dias. (for a general childhood routine)
• Right: Quando era criança, brincava aqui todos os dias.
• Why: English simple past can describe a past state or habit. Portuguese normally uses the imperfect when childhood and the repeated activity form the background.

Using the imperfect for one completed event

• Wrong: Ontem comprava um casaco. (if you mean that the purchase was completed)
• Right: Ontem comprei um casaco.
• Why: A single finished purchase is presented as a complete event, so it takes the preterite. Comprava would need a context such as an interruption or a repeated habit.

Building an -er verb with -ava

• Wrong: Eu comeava cedo.
• Right: Eu comia cedo.
• Why: Only -ar verbs use the -ava series. Both -er and -ir verbs use -ia.

Forgetting accents in the nós form

• Wrong: Nós falavamos; nós comiamos.
• Right: Nós falávamos; nós comíamos.
• Why: These forms require a written accent to show the correct stress. It also helps distinguish falávamos from falamos, which can be present or preterite depending on variety and context.

Translating English “would” automatically

• Wrong approach: assuming every English “would” becomes the imperfect.
• Right: No verão, nadávamos todos os dias. — “In summer, we would swim every day.”
• Why: The imperfect matches habitual “would,” but not conditional “would.” “I would travel if I had money” requires the conditional (viajaria), not viajava in neutral standard usage.

Saying age with ser

• Wrong: Quando era dez anos...
• Right: Quando tinha dez anos...
• Why: Portuguese expresses age with ter (“to have”), not ser (“to be”): literally, “when I had ten years.”

Usage Notes

Subject choices across Portuguese varieties

The tense itself works across Portuguese-speaking regions, but pronoun preferences affect the forms you hear. Brazilian Portuguese commonly uses você and vocês, with third-person forms: você falava, vocês falavam. A gente is also very common for “we” in conversation and takes a singular verb: A gente morava lá.

European Portuguese commonly uses tu in informal singular contexts and vocês or other forms of address in the plural, depending on region and relationship. These differences change which row of the table is frequent, not the basic meaning of the imperfect.

English translations are context-dependent

Do not insist on putting “used to” into every translation. In A casa era antiga, plain “The house was old” is natural. In Íamos à praia aos sábados, “We used to go to the beach on Saturdays” or “We would go…” makes the repetition clearer. In Eu dormia quando chegaste, English needs the progressive: “I was sleeping when you arrived.” Portuguese uses one imperfect form for all these views.

States often appear in the imperfect

Verbs of knowing, wanting, thinking, feeling, and possession often describe continuing past states: sabia (“knew”), queria (“wanted”), pensava (“thought”), sentia (“felt”), tinha (“had”). They can still occur in the preterite when the meaning is bounded or changes—for example, soube da notícia ontem means “I found out about the news yesterday.” The tense contrast can therefore affect meaning, not merely style.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

You do not need to master all of these uses at A2, but you will hear them frequently.

Polite and softened requests

The imperfect can make a present request sound less abrupt by placing some distance around it:

• Queria um café, por favor. — “I’d like a coffee, please.”
• Queria falar com a senhora Silva. — “I’d like to speak with Ms Silva.”
• Podia ajudar-me? — “Could you help me?”

Although the verb form is grammatically past, the intended request concerns the present. Queria is widespread across varieties. In European Portuguese, Gostava de reservar uma mesa (“I’d like to book a table”) is also especially common. These expressions are conventional politeness, not reports about a former desire.

Narrative perspective

Writers and speakers alternate imperfect and preterite to control the shape of a story. Compare:

Chovia. As pessoas corriam para casa e as lojas fechavam.

This places you inside an unfolding scene: “It was raining. People were running home and the shops were closing.” Then a preterite can introduce the next completed event:

De repente, um carro parou diante do hotel. — “Suddenly, a car stopped in front of the hotel.”

The imperfect is not inherently vague or unfinished. The rain and shop-closing may have ended; the speaker simply chooses not to present their boundaries as the main point.

Repeated events versus a completed series

Repeated action often takes the imperfect, but the preterite can summarize a finished, counted series:

• Telefonava-me todas as semanas. — “He used to call me every week.”
• Telefonou-me três vezes ontem. — “He called me three times yesterday.”

A number, a closed time period, or a result often encourages the completed viewpoint. It does not act as an absolute grammatical trigger; the intended perspective still matters.

Reported background and future-in-the-past

In more advanced narration, the imperfect can appear when reporting what was expected or scheduled from a past viewpoint: Ela disse que chegava no dia seguinte can mean “She said she was arriving the next day.” Choice among the imperfect, conditional, and other forms varies with meaning, register, and regional usage. At A2, concentrate first on habits, descriptions, and ongoing past situations.

Practice Tips

1. Build paired mini-stories. Write one background sentence in the imperfect and one completed event in the preterite: Eu caminhava para casa quando começou a chover. This trains meaning rather than isolated endings.
2. Make a “then” routine. Describe five things you regularly did at an earlier stage of life using time clues such as sempre, todos os dias, and aos domingos. Then remove the clues and check whether the habitual meaning is still clear from context.
3. Drill the high-value forms aloud. Practice one regular verb from each group plus ser, ter, vir, and pôr. Give extra attention to nós forms and their stress: falávamos, comíamos, partíamos, éramos.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Preterite (Pretérito Perfeito) — provides the completed-past viewpoint that contrasts with the imperfect.
• Next step: Preterite vs Imperfect — develops the contrast in narratives and less obvious contexts.
• Later connection: Indirect Speech — shows how past viewpoints interact when reporting what someone said.