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Building Blocks 4

The two past tenses learners find hardest, taken slowly. Saying what you did, and describing how life used to be.

Level A2–B112 lessons, plus a welcome and a final quiz

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This course carries on from earlier ones. Sign in and your place in each is kept.

  1. Welcome to Building Blocks 4What Building Blocks 4 covers over its 12 lessons: the preterite and imperfect past tenses, the house, and polite requests.not finished
  2. Uma casa no campo (A house in the countryside)O quarto, a sala, o jardim. House-viewing vocabulary alongside the indirect object pronouns me, te, lhe, nos, vos and lhes.not finished
  3. O que fizeste em casa? (What did you do at home?)Fiz, fizeste, fez. The irregular preterite of 'fazer' set against regular -ar verbs like 'limpar' and 'lavar', on household chores.not finished
  4. Eu reguei as plantas (I watered the plants)Reguei, sequei, comecei. Why verbs ending in -gar, -car and -çar change their spelling in the 'eu' form of the preterite.not finished
  5. Hoje levantei-me tarde (Today I got up late)Levantei-me, levantaste-te. Reflexive verbs and their pronouns, and how 'levantar' changes meaning once it points back at you.not finished
  6. Já comeste hoje? (Have you eaten today?)Já, ainda, ainda não. Talking about meals already eaten, using the regular preterite of -er and -ir verbs like 'comer' and 'abrir'.not finished
  7. Como foi a viagem? (How was the trip?)Como foi a viagem? Travel vocabulary and the preterite of 'ser' and 'ir', two verbs that share every form in this tense.not finished
  8. Já estiveste em Lisboa? (Have you been to Lisbon?)Estive, tive. 'Estar' and 'ter' conjugated in the preterite to talk about where you were and what you had, plus the months of the year.not finished
  9. Antigamente... (Back then...)Antigamente, eu jogava futebol. The imperfect past for how things used to be, set against the preterite for one-off past events.not finished
  10. Eu ia à praia todos os verões (I used to go to the beach every summer)Eu ia, tu ias, nós íamos. The imperfect past of -er and -ir verbs, where even 'ir' and 'fazer' fall into the regular pattern.not finished
  11. Quando eu era criança... (When I was a child...)Eu era, eu tinha. 'Ser' and 'ter', the two verbs irregular in the imperfect past, used for age, identity and childhood memories.not finished
  12. Queria um café, por favor. (I'd like a coffee, please.)Queria, podia, gostava. How the imperfect past softens a request into something closer to 'I'd like' or 'could you'.not finished
  13. Sabes o que aconteceu? (Do you know what happened?)Uma vez, no outro dia. Combining the imperfect and preterite to set a scene, then move a story forward in time.not finished
  14. Building Blocks 4 Final QuizThe wrap-up quiz for Building Blocks 4: 20 questions on the house, the past tenses and polite requests, 70% needed to pass.not finished