Portuguese Verb Tenses and Moods Explained: A Usage Rundown Anchored to English

With so many conjugations, Portuguese verbs are a hard-to-chew bit for anyone learning the language, especially for those not acquainted with any Romance language from before. 

Now, it is one thing to keep track of all the different verb forms and spellings (by memorizing them), it is another to develop an understanding and intuition of when to use a given verb tense.

This article focuses on the latter and should give you a decent grasp of which verb tenses, moods, or structures apply to different situations and contexts. 

In what follows, we’ll dive into the Portuguese verb system anchored to English tenses. In this way, and assuming you are familiar with English, it will be easier for you to navigate Portuguese verbs. Read on.

Portuguese Present tenses

Present tenses are normally used to denote the present time.

To give examples of the different aspects of the Present tense, I will use the verb ensinar (teach). This verb belongs to the first group of regular verbs whose infinitive form ends in -ar (patterned endings italicized):

Learn more about regular conjugation patterns in the Present tense: Portuguese Regular Verbs and Conjugation Patterns in the Present Tense.

Present Simple

Like English, you’d often use this tense when referring to something done regularly (habits, repeated actions, etc). Here’s an example:

ensinar (present) 
Eu ensino Português numa escola de línguas.
I teach Portuguese in a language school.

Expressing future time

You can also use the Present Simple to express a future time (with the help of an adverb or adverbial phrase of time indicating a time ahead):

adverb of time > ensinar (present) 
No próximo mês, ensino só às tardes.
Next month, I will teach only in the afternoons.

Present Continuous

The Present Continuous tense denotes an ongoing action, something that is happening at the moment it is mentioned. We’ll now be using the auxiliary verb estar, the Portuguese counterpart of the verb to be:

To be sure, there are two verbs to be, namely ser and estar. Read the following article to dig deeper into their differences: Portuguese Verbs ‘Ser’ and ‘Estar’- How and When to Use Either).

The Present Continuous is formed by conjugating the auxiliary estar in the Present Simple and adding the preposition a thereafter. The main verb, in the infinitive form, comes last: 

estar (present) > a > ensinar (infinitive)
A Carolina está a ensinar Português em Praga.
Carolina is teaching Portuguese in Prague.

Notice that the Present Continuous, like all progressive tenses, looks slightly different in the Brazilian standard – you’d leave out the preposition after the auxiliary verb, and the main verb comes in the Present Participle (-ing form equivalent) instead*. This verb structure is closer to English:

estar (present) > ensinar (present participle)
A Carolina está ensinando Português em Praga.
Carolina is teaching Portuguese in Prague.

* The Present Participle is called Gerúndio in Portuguese, and this verbal form is widely used beyond Progressive/Continuous tenses (in either standard). Learn more about gerúndio here: Portuguese Gerund: Progressive Tenses and Beyond.

Present Perfect

All perfect tenses use ter as the auxiliary verb (the Portuguese counterpart of have). Concerning the Present Perfect tenses, in particular,  the auxiliary verb ter comes in the Present Simple tense:

In English, the Present Perfect tenses refer to either unfinished (still ongoing) or completed actions. The Portuguese Present Perfect equivalent (structure-wise only), however, concerns unfinished actions only. Let’s take a closer view of that.

Unfinished actions

We tend to use the Present Perfect Continuous to refer to actions that started in the past and continue up to the present. Here’s an example of what that can look like in Portuguese: