Portuguese past tenses: perfeito or imperfeito?
Fiz or fazia? One past is a finished event, the other is the background. And there's a surprise for English speakers: tenho feito.
Pretérito perfeito: what happened
The perfeito is for completed actions: one event, finished. It covers English “I did” and very often “I have done”.
Ontem fui ao cinema.
Yesterday I went to the cinema.
Já comeste?
Have you eaten yet?
Pretérito imperfeito: the background
The imperfeito describes what was going on, habits and descriptions in the past: “I was doing”, “I used to do”.
Quando era criança, vivia no campo.
When I was a child, I lived (used to live) in the countryside.
Estava a ler quando tocou o telefone.
I was reading when the phone rang.
The surprise: tenho feito
Portuguese has a compound form, tenho feito, but it doesn't mean “I have done”. It means a repeated action up to now: tenho trabalhado muito = I've been working a lot (lately).
Try thisThink of a play: the imperfeito is the scenery, the perfeito is what happens on stage.
Quick check
“I've already seen this film.”
Master the two past tenses
The C1 workbook Perfeito ou imperfeito? trains exactly this contrast, with real texts and answer keys.
See the workbooks →