Past Tenses in Portuguese

In Portuguese grammar, the word ‘pretérito’ is commonly used to refer to the past, and it includes several tenses, each with its own purpose.

Below is a list of all the Portuguese past tenses, each shown with an example using the first person singular of the verb ‘falar’ (to speak).

After that, we’ll take a closer look at how each tense is used, starting with the indicative mood (used for facts), both in its simple and compound forms, followed by the subjunctive mood, also divided into simple and compound tenses.