Verbs: The Preterite Indicative

Ok, let’s take a look into the past.  You might think that the past tense is called ‘the past tense’ – but I’m afraid you would be wrong.  For some reason, grammarians (that’s what you call the nutters who make this stuff up) have decided to call it ‘the preterite’ or ‘preterite indicative’.

By the way, Americans sometimes spell this as ‘preterit’ without a final ‘e’ – this American spelling reflects the correct pronunciation:  it should be pronounced ‘pret-er-rit’ not ‘pret-er-right’.  The word preterite is derived from the Latin ‘praeteritum’ meaning ‘past’ (grammarians just luuurve Latin).

The concept is very similar to using the present tense – you just have to learn the new conjugations.  There are actually several ways to refer to something that happened in the past, each with varying shades of meaning, and the preterite represents just one of these ways.  To give you an example of what I mean, take a look at the following sentences:

I walked home

I was walking home

I have walked home

I had walked home

I will have walked home

I would have walked home

Each of these sentences describes something involving the past, but they carry different shades of meaning by employing different tenses.  The preterite is the simplest of these, that is, the first example above ‘I walked home’.  It refers to someone or something directly having done something (he ran, they ate, we went, etc.).  For regular verbs, this just means using a different set of endings on the stem of the infinitive.  The following examples of regular Portuguese verbs illustrate the full conjugation of the preterite tense.

Here are some examples of irregular preterites:

No, it’s not a misprint.  The preterite forms of the verbs ‘ser’ and ‘ir’ are identical.  So to say ‘I was’ is exactly the same as to say ‘I went’.  Strange, but true.

Interestingly, the preterite is used even for negative statements in Portuguese – we don’t do this in English.  For example, to put ‘I thought’ into the negative, we would say ‘I did not think’.  Because we use ‘did’ (an auxiliary verb), we have to change ‘thought’ to ‘think’ (the infinitive).  Portuguese is a lot simpler. ‘I did not think’ would be translated ‘não pensei’ (lit. ‘not I thought’), which is much more logical, and does not require you to change the verb form or use any auxiliary verbs.  That's why you sometimes hear Portuguese people who are learning English say things like ‘I didn't thought’.

Comments

Not True Written by Paul on 2005-11-25 20:46:54 IP: 70.109.49.54 ... The preterito tense does not form the negative for everything. What you said here, "Interestingly, the preterite is used even for negative statements in Portuguese – we don’t do this in English" is not always true. Here is an example: Eu nao quero ir. That is a negative statement without the preterito tense. You will need to change that paragraph.

Tis True! Written by Administrator on 2005-11-25 21:21:50 IP: 80.3.128.8 Thank you for your observation, however this page is not saying that all negative statements use the preterite - the paragraph in question was just pointing out a difference between Portuguese and English: ie. Although you don't use the preterite in a negative statement in English, you can in Portuguese. 'Eu nao quero ir' is in the present tense, so the preterite would not be used anyway whether stated positively or negatively.

Preterite Ind and Imperfect Ind Written by Colin on 2006-01-10 14:44:45 IP: 80.3.128.8 My greatest problem with learning portuguese (and I guess this must apply to most students of the language) is getting familar with the verb usage. It would be a great help if more simple examples were made available. To give an example of the torment that I am suffering, take the verb "Ter"     Ela tinha que ir-se embora. (imperfect-ind)  Translates:-She had to leave.  Ela teve que fazer umas compras (preterite)  Translates:- She had to do some shopping.     These two phrases sound to me to be of the same tense. I am confused and frustated. Please can you explain?

Preterite and Imperfect Indicative Written by Administrator on 2009-07-15 08:38:23 IP: 80.3.128.8 You are right, this is very confusing for English-speakers. The difference between the two tenses is described a little more here, but basically:    Preterite = a definite event applicable to a specific time period in the past.  Imperfect = a situation applicable to an unspecified time period in the past.    To take your examples, a literal translation would be:    Ela tinha que ir embora = She was having to go away  Ela teve que fazer umas compras = She had to do some shopping    The phrasing of the 'she was having to go away' does not flow very well in English - we would normally change the imperfect into the preterite.    In fact, 'ela teve que ir' would be quite correct if referring to a specific time or event. 'Ela tinha que ir' is more vague - she didn't have to go at a specific time, but at some undetermined point she would have to go.    I hope that helps!

My Opinion Written by Salazar (I'm still alive) on 2006-04-24 07:21:06 IP: 80.3.128.8 When a verb is followed by an infinitive (quero ir) then only the first word is negative otherwise the intention is negated.

Differentiating between when to use the Written by Neil on 2006-10-16 01:58:08 IP: 69.254.133.72 I would just like to say that your explanation on when to use the preterit over the imperfect (and vice-versa) is easily the greatest and easiest to understand that I have ever come across. This has saved me likely infinite amounts of guesswork, and I just wanted to thank you.

Written by Laura on 2007-09-27 15:37:55 IP: 4.154.211.84 Thank you. This information was very helpful to me.

Imp. VS. Pret. Written by Paigess on 2008-03-20 02:45:41 IP: 66.67.123.212 Eng. native who needs HELP... i know the difference in Spanish, but can someone elaborate on examples of the different usage in Portuguese?    for starters: can someone conjugate TER both, an example of a sentence... i was on a roll until this section?    and thanks Admin, this IS a really great site!

Ter Written by Administrator on 2008-03-20 08:45:04 IP: 80.3.252.130 You can see the full conjugation of ter here: http://www.verbix.com/cache/webverbix/2/ter.shtml    Preterite: Eu tive um acidente (I had an accident - an event)  Imperfect: Eu tinha um gato (I had a cat - for a period of time in the past)

How to stress Preterite? Written by etsil on 2010-07-27 12:22:33 IP: 88.178.112.82 Hello   Could you tell how you stress:  pensEi or pEnsei?  pensOu or pEnsou?  pensarAm or pensAram?    I guess the latter is right, but want to be sure once and for all and to have no doubts ever!

Stress Written by Administrator on 2010-07-27 12:23:49 IP: 81.103.153.54 That's really a matter of pronunciation rather than grammar, but...the stress goes like this:    PensEI  PensOU  PensAram

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