Portuguese Past Tense — Preterite vs Imperfect Explained with Examples — European Portuguese Guide

Mastering the European Portuguese preterite vs imperfect tense is one of the most important steps from A1 to A2 and beyond. English speakers often find this confusing because English uses a single simple past tense ("I ate", "I was eating") where Portuguese requires a deliberate choice between two distinct past tenses. Making the wrong choice does not always break communication, but it marks your Portuguese as unnatural and can create genuine misunderstandings. This guide explains exactly when to use each tense, gives you the full conjugation tables, and walks through ten example sentences that show the difference clearly.

Preterite vs Imperfect: When to Use Each

Use PRETERITE (pretérito perfeito) when...	Use IMPERFECT (pretérito imperfeito) when...
A completed action with a defined time	An ongoing or habitual action in the past
A sequence of events ("he entered, sat down, opened his laptop")	Background descriptions ("it was raining, the street was quiet")
A short, one-time action	States and conditions in the past ("I was tired", "she was happy")
Trigger words: ontem, há X anos, em 2020, de repente, naquele momento	Trigger words: sempre, normalmente, quando era criança, às vezes, habitualmente
The interrupting action ("she WAS eating when he ARRIVED" — arrived = preterite)	The interrupted background ("she WAS EATING when he arrived" — eating = imperfect)

Preterite Conjugation Table

Verb type	eu	tu	ele/ela	nós	eles/elas
-ar: falar	falei	falaste	falou	falámos	falaram
-er: comer	comi	comeste	comeu	comemos	comeram
-ir: partir	parti	partiste	partiu	partimos	partiram

Imperfect Conjugation Table

Verb type	eu	tu	ele/ela	nós	eles/elas
-ar: falar	falava	falavas	falava	falávamos	falavam
-er: comer	comia	comias	comia	comíamos	comiam
-ir: partir	partia	partias	partia	partíamos	partiam

Key Irregular Preterites

Several very common verbs have highly irregular preterite forms that must be memorised. These are the most important:

Verb	eu	tu	ele/ela	nós	eles/elas
ser / ir	fui	foste	foi	fomos	foram
ter	tive	tiveste	teve	tivemos	tiveram
fazer	fiz	fizeste	fez	fizemos	fizeram
estar	estive	estiveste	esteve	estivemos	estiveram
vir	vim	vieste	veio	viemos	vieram
dar	dei	deste	deu	demos	deram

10 Example Sentence Pairs

Preterite: "Ontem comi uma francesinha no Porto." — Yesterday I ate a francesinha in Porto. (completed action, specific time marker ontem)
Imperfect: "Em criança, comia sempre bacalhau ao domingo." — As a child, I always ate cod on Sundays. (habitual repeated action in the past)
Preterite: "Ele entrou, sentou-se e abriu o computador." — He entered, sat down, and opened the laptop. (sequence of completed actions)
Imperfect: "Quando era jovem, vivia em Lisboa." — When I was young, I lived in Lisbon. (ongoing state in the past)
Both — background + interruption: "Estava a ler quando o telefone tocou." — I was reading (imperfect) when the phone rang (preterite). Classic pattern: imperfect sets the scene, preterite breaks in.
Both: "Fui ao médico porque me sentia mal." — I went to the doctor (preterite = completed action) because I was feeling unwell (imperfect = ongoing state).
Imperfect: "Antigamente, as pessoas trabalhavam mais horas." — In the old days, people worked longer hours. (habitual/general past — trigger word antigamente)
Preterite: "De repente, ouviu um barulho estranho." — Suddenly, he heard a strange noise. (trigger word de repente always signals preterite)
Imperfect: "O céu estava limpo e o mar brilhava." — The sky was clear and the sea was shining. (background description setting a scene)
Preterite: "Em 2019, visitámos o Douro pela primeira vez." — In 2019, we visited the Douro for the first time. (specific year = completed, bounded event)

How European Portuguese Past Tense Differs from Brazilian

There is one important difference worth knowing. The pretérito perfeito composto — the compound past formed with ter + past participle — is used differently in EP and Brazilian Portuguese (PT-BR). In European Portuguese, "tenho comido muito ultimamente" means "I have been eating a lot lately" — it refers to a repeated or ongoing action that started in the past and continues up to the present. In Brazilian Portuguese (PT-BR), this compound form is far less common; speakers typically use the simple preterite (comi) instead, even for recently completed actions. This means an EP learner must remember that comi = a single completed action in the past, while tenho comido = a repeated or continuous action up to now.

Common Mistakes

Imperfect for single completed events: "Ontem comia bife" ✗ — should be "Ontem comi bife" ✓. Ontem signals a single past event.
Preterite for habitual past: If describing a habit, use imperfect. "Sempre ia ao mercado aos sábados" ✓ (habit) rather than "Sempre fui ao mercado aos sábados" (which implies it happened a countable number of times).
Irregular preterite forms: "Eu fazi" ✗ — should be "Eu fiz" ✓. "Eu seri" ✗ — should be "Eu fui" ✓.
Forgetting the accent in nós preterite: falámos (preterite) vs falamos (present) — the accent on the á is the only written distinction.

Practice: A2 past tense story — comer — A2 past tense story — fazer — B1 lembrar story