Advanced forms of TER

By James Hall / / (4) Advanced Portuguese, (2) Beginning Portuguese, (3) Intermediate Portuguese
portuguese verb TER

Prerequisite Reading: Portuguese verb TER.

Superpowers? Sim, TER has superpowers. Though these are considered advanced-level, any ambitious learner can start using them now! Just keep in mind that the conjugation of TER is very irregular. Let's start with the most used:

The Imperative of Ter

You will hear these all_the_time:

Tenha um bom dia! > Have a good day!
Tenha uma boa viagem! > Have a good trip!
Tenha muita sorte! > Lot's of luck!

Pronounced: TEN-YA
You just need to know this conjugation TENHA - the others (such as vocês tenham...) are very seldom used. You can get away with saying tem rather than tenha in any conversational situation.

The Conditional of Ter

The conditional of TER translates to, would have.

Eu teria pago mais. > I would have paid more.
Eu teria muito orgulho em saber. > I would be very pleased to know.
Ela teria dito a mesma coisa. > She would have said the same thing.

Note that these often get combined with a past participle.

The Present Perfect of Ter

I love this tense of TER because you can say things like, I've been doing x & y. It took me a long time to figure out how to express the equivalent of been, in Portuguese.

For example, to say "I've been working every weekend" you use the present perfect verb form. Just use TER + past participle of any VERB:

Eu tenho trabalhado todo dia. > I've been working every day.
Você tem treinado? > Have you been training?
Ela tem saído muito! > She's been going out a lot!

You only need to modify the TER to match the subject.

» Even more tenses of the verb TER.