Compound Tenses in the Indicative and Conditional Moods

Up until now, we’ve mostly been working with simple tenses, but now it’s time to explore the various compound tenses in Portuguese. This Learning Note is just an introduction to the general concepts — we’ll cover each one in more detail as you progress through the Unit.

What Are Compound Tenses?

A Portuguese verb form can appear in a simple tense (only the main verb) or in a compound tense (auxiliary verb + past participle of the main verb).

• simples: Falei com ela ontem (I spoke with her yesterday)
• composto: Já tinha falado com ela antes de chegarem (I had already spoken with her before you(pl.) arrived)

These tempos compostoscompound tensesCommunity Slow audio Play audio add more detail about the timeline, showing how an action relates to other events.

Overview of Compound Tenses

Here’s a simplified overview of what the first few compound tenses look like, using the past participle escritowrittenCommunity Slow audio Play audio Adjective / Past Participle as an example:

• pretérito perfeito composto do indicativo: tenho escritoI have been writingCommunity
• pretérito mais-que-perfeito composto do indicativo: tinha escritoI had writtenCommunity
• futuro composto do indicativo: terei escritoI will have writtenCommunity
• condicional composto: teria escritoI would have writtenCommunity

In this Unit (Compound Tenses 1), we’ll focus only on these 4 tenses, which are compound tenses in the indicativo mood and the condicional mood. (In Compound Tenses 2, we’ll cover the subjunctive mood and nominal forms.)

Simple vs. Compound

Now let’s take a moment to compare the simple and compound forms of those 4 tenses.

Pretérito Perfeito

The simple form of the pretérito perfeito is used to describe completed actions in the past, without emphasizing a connection to the present. This is the most common form in Portuguese for past events.

• Eu visitei o museu ontemI visited the museum yesterdayCommunity Slow audio Play audio – Indicates a clear and completed action in the past.

The compound form is used to express actions that started in the past and continue to the present, or are repeated multiple times up to the present moment.

• Eu tenho visitado o museuI have been visiting the museumCommunity Slow audio Play audio – Emphasizes the ongoing or habitual nature of the action.

Pretérito Mais-que-perfeito

This literary form expresses an action that was completed before another past action. It is less common in spoken language, but still used in formal writing or literature.

• Eu visitara o museu antes de conhecer o guiaI had visited the museum before meeting the guideCommunity Slow audio Play audio – Indicates a past action that occurred earlier than another.

The compound form is more modern and is the most commonly used form:

• Eu tinha visitado o museu antes de conhecer o guiaI had visited the museum before meeting the guideCommunity Slow audio Play audio – Same meaning as the simple form. Easier to construct and widely preferred in conversation and writing.

Futuro

The simple form of the future refers to future actions.

• Eu viajarei no próximo mêsI will travel next monthCommunity Slow audio Play audio – Indicates a future action clearly and concisely.

The compound form is used to express an action that will have been completed before another action or moment in the future.

• Eu terei viajado antes do teu aniversárioI will have traveled before your (sing.,inf.) birthdayCommunity Slow audio Play audio – Highlights the completion of an action prior to a future event.

Condicional

The simple form of the conditional expresses hypothetical actions, desires, or possibilities in the future or past, often corresponding to “would” in English.

• Eu viajaria se tivesse tempoI would travel if I had timeCommunity Slow audio Play audio – Indicates a hypothetical or unreal condition.

The condicional composto is used to describe a hypothetical action that would have occurred in the past, but didn’t.

• Eu teria viajado se tivesse tido tempoI would have traveled if I had had timeCommunity Slow audio Play audio – Refers to an unrealized action in the past.

A Note About Ter & Haver

You’ve probably noticed that so far every example used ter as the verbo auxiliarauxiliary verbCommunity Slow audio Play audio Noun, Singular, Masculine . The verb haver is another possible option. For example:

• Eu havia visitado o museu antes de conhecer o guiaI had visited the museum before I met the guideCommunity Slow audio Play audio

Nowadays, however, haver has fallen into disuse as an auxiliary verb. You may hear it occasionally from older generations, but otherwise it mostly only appears in literature or theater. For that reason, we’ve decided to focus primarily on sentences containing terto haveCommunity Slow audio Play audio Verb .