Tag Archives: verbal tenses

Using the Participle – Grammar

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 The following was taken from the book “Português Do Dia-a-Dia” by Prof. Sérgio Nogueira Duarte da Silva. If you get a chance to purchase the book, I do recommend it. As for the participle and the lesson below, one will often see the past participle of pagar, aceitar and prender (pago, aceito, preso) while the rest of the examples are seen to a lesser extent. Keep in mind that you will hear the ‘wrong’ way used in informal Portuguese (ie. tinha entregue), but wrong and right, as you may find, are debatable. The participle lesson starts with the example below.

Ex. Ele tinha ENTREGUE or ENTREGADO os documentos?

The correct form is “tinha entregado“. When the verb has two participles (abundant verbs), the rule is the following: With the auxiliary verb ter (or haver), the regular form (with the ending of -ado or -ido) should be used.

Ex. Ele tinha entregado os documentos.

With the auxiliary verb ser (or estar), the irregular form should be used.

Ex. Os documentos foram entregues por ele.

Observe other examples:

Ter (or Haver)/ Ser (or Estar)
aceitado/aceito
acendido/aceso
elegido/eleito
entregado/entregue
expulsado/expulso
extinguido/extinto
imergido/imerso
isentado/isento
matado/morto
morrido/morto
prendido/preso
salvado/salvo
submergido/submerso
suspendido/suspenso

Observations

On principle, this rule applies itself to the verbs ganhar (ganho and ganhado); gastar (gasto and gastado); pagar (pago and pagado); pegar (pego and pegado);

Ex. Isso foi ganho, gasto, pago e pego.

The regular forms are rarely used in Brazil. Many scholars already accept the irregular forms, even with the verbs ter and haver.

Ex. Ele tinha ganho, tinha gasto, tinha pago and tinha pego.

The verbs trazer and chegar aren’t abundant. They use just one participle: trazido and chegado. The forms trago and chego are inacceptable:

Ex. Isso foi trago por mim; Ele tinha chego atrasado. 

The correct form is: Isso foi trazido por mim; Ele tinha chegado atrasado.

Tough tense – The Past Perfect

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These days I read more in Portugese than I do in English, actually I finish the books faster when they are in Portuguese, which to some is strange. I think they think I mean that I understand Portuguese better than English, which isn’t true. It’s just that I am more motivated to have another book in Portuguese under my belt than one in English.

One tense has perplexed me for a while now and I never bothered to check it out until now even though after time, I started to get the gist of what it meant. The tense is called the “pretérito mais-que-perfeito” (past perfect/pluperfect) and I’ll explain it to you below using someone else’s response to a question on the matter here (click to learn a little more).

Take any verb and add an “a” on the end although not an accented “a” and what do you get? You get confused, or at least I did…until now. The tense in question for this post refers to a past event that occurs before another action in the past. Here are some examples.

“Ele nunca tinha comido salmão até visitar aquele restaurante = Ele nunca comera salmão até visitar aquele restaurante (He had never eaten salmon before he visited that restaurant)

Disse-me que não tinha pensado no assunto antes de chegar = Disse-me que não pensara no assunto antes de chegar (He told me he hadn’t thought about the issue before he arrived)

The tense is seldom used in the spoken language, although it appears in literature and in situations when someone is recounting a past event (e.g. historical documentaries).”

So, now you know! Happy reading!