the Future Subjunctive
The future subjunctive is used to talk about things that are uncertain to occur in the future. %%sep%% The words IF and WHEN usually trigger this tense.
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the Present Subjunctive
Using the Present Subjunctive Portuguese uses the Subjunctive mood to indicate something is uncertain to happen or to have occurred. There are 3 different degrees of uncertainty: (1) extremely unlikely, (2) plausible, (3) likely. The Present Subjunctive is used for case (2): actions that are plausible, yet have not yet occurred. Use this tense to talk…
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the Imperfect Indicative
In Portuguese, there are several ways to refer to something that happened in the past, each with varying shades of meaning. Verb tenses! The Past Imperfect – officially called the Imperfect Indicative (o Pretérito Imperfeito), is used when talking about continuous or ongoing action in the past. Something that used to occur or, would occur. You’ll…
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Imperfect Subjunctive + Conditional
In the previous post we talked about this verb tense — the imperfect subjunctive, as well. So many of you have asked to see even more examples of this super-useful grammar trick so: aqui estão! (here they are!) the Imperfect Subjunctive is insanely great. Even better with the Conditional! And BTW, only language professors need…
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the Portuguese Subjunctive
The subjunctive mood has been known to break students. Every serious Portuguese student runs straight into it. Some get hurt. Some get scared. But it doesn’t have to be that way. The Portuguese Subjunctive is actually a rose with thorns. It’s a beautiful part of the language that should be embraced and used with style,…
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the Imperfect Subjunctive
Using the Imperfect Subjunctive Portuguese uses the Subjunctive mood to indicate something is uncertain to happen or to have occurred. There are 3 different degrees of uncertainty: (1) extremely unlikely, (2) plausible, (3) likely. The Imperfect Subjunctive is used for case (1): actions that are extremely unlikely to happen or to have happened. If I were…
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Preterit Indicative (regular verbs)
In Portuguese there are several ways to refer to something that happened in the past. Each, with different meanings. The Preterit tense is the simplest of these. It’s like saying, I bought my own private jet yesterday.. Why isn’t that enough to know? Because in Portuguese, you will use a different verb conjugation to convey…
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the Conditional in Portuguese
Forming the Conditional in Portuguese is the English equivalent of would or could. To a language instructor, this tense is known as “the future of the preterite”. We just call it, THE CONDITIONAL. Use it whenever you want to say would or could in the FUTURE (only). It’s not used for the past as we…
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Use I think the Portuguese Imperative is the_most_confusing mood to understand. I try and steer beginners far, far away from it because: Brazilians do not use this form with any consistency. What I really mean to say here is, they follow the rules of grammar, but they switch between the regular and the tu form…
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The Present Progressive (gerund)
Use Use it to talk about things that are happening right now! Think of it as progress in the present: working, shopping, talking, studying. The Present Progressive is equivalent to the ing ending in English. It’s easy to learn. There is no irregular verb in the present progressive in Portuguese. Furthermore, the conjugations are the…
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Portuguese Adverbs of Intensity
Some Portuguese adverbs are made for adding INTENSITY (emphasis). They have their own name too: adverbs of intensity. You don’t need to actually know what an “adverb of intensity” is – you already use them every day. You just need to know the vocabulary for expressing things like, ‘hardly’, ‘almost’, ‘completely’ as in, ‘I kind…
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the Preterite Indicative : irregular verbs
The preterite indicative mood was discussed in this post is the simplest form of the past tense. It specifically talks about action that is over and done. Once you’ve gotten the conjugation down you need to know about the most common irregulars. Let’s look at seven of the most common: Ser to be (more about…
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the Preterite Indicative: AR verbs
15 you need to know Once you’ve gotten comfortable conjugating verbs in the present tense, the next tense to know is called the Preterite. It’s officially referred to as the preterite perfect, indicative mood. That’s what a linguist would call it. It’s commonly known as the simple past. By now you’ve come to realize that…
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The Present Perfect Tense
In Portuguese there are several ways to refer to something that happened in the past, each with varying shades of meaning. The present perfect indicative (!) includes expressions like ‘I have been going out every night’. Use it when talking about action that has been happening (and still is).
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