Tempi passati portoghesi – Rundown sull'uso ancorato all'inglese
In this article, we will look at the Portuguese equivalents of the English Past Simple, Past Continuous, and Past Perfect tenses.
Ecco un paio di letture analoghe su Presente E Futuro tempi verbali:
Tempi presenti portoghesi – Rundown sull'uso ancorato all'inglese
Tempi futuri portoghesi – Rundown sull'uso ancorato all'inglese
Userò il verbo dormir (sonno) per tutti gli esempi seguenti:
Dormir | Preterite Pretérito Perfeito | Dormir | Imperfect Pretérito Imperfeito | |
Eu | dormi | dormia |
Tu | dormiste | dormias |
Ele, ela | dormiu | dormia |
Nós | dormimos | dormíamos |
Vocês Eles, elas | dormiram | dormiam |
Present participle Gerúndio | dormindo | |
Past participle Particípio passado | dormido |
Passato semplice
There are two Past tenses* that often map onto the English Past simple, namely the Preterite (Pretérito Perfeito) e il Imperfect (Pretérito Imperfeito).
Ciò spesso confonde gli studenti la cui lingua madre non ha questa sfumatura tesa (inglese incluso). Proviamo allora a capirci qualcosa.
* These are technically called “verb aspects” as there’s only one Past tense.
Preterite – Completed Actions
We use the Preterite to talk about past actions that are completed and well delimited in time:
A Raquel dormiu até às 10 da manhã. Raquel slept until 10 in the morning. |
Come puoi vedere sopra, il Preterito (dormiu) si traduce nel Past Simple (slept) in inglese.
Further, we can also use a compound verb structure with the auxiliary verb estar in the Preterite followed by the preposition a and the action verb in the Infinitive without any substantial change in meaning:
A Raquel esteve a dormir até às 10 da manhã. Raquel was sleeping until 10 in the morning. |
Finally, note that we also use the Preterite in situations where, in English, we use the Present Perfect:
Olá! I'm Pedro and I'm your Portuguese teacher.
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