Verbs in P.P.S. – (Pretérito Perfeito Simples)

Our life is divided into three periods – past, present and future. The future is something ephemeral, our motivation to live and act in the present. But the past is our foundation or a trap, it happens in different ways, but we all know that the past cannot be changed and without it there is not a single life story. You simply cannot do without it.

Verbs ending in “-er, -ir” in P.P.S

We remind you that P. P. S. is the abbreviation of the past tense Pretérito Perfeito Simples. It is used to describe an action or result in the past that has no regularity and happened once. To create the conjugation of the verb in this tense, you need to change the ending of the verb. In the table below you will see how to do this for verbs with the endings “-er” and “-ir“. For all pronouns, we replace the ending “-er/-ir” with the appropriate ending.

Let’s do this in examples:

Uma vez bebi cinco litros de cerveja. (Once I drank 5 liters of beer.)

Nós partimos de Portugal há 10 anos e agora moramos na Rússia. (We left Portugal 10 years ago and are now living in Russia.)

Note that the verb form for the pronoun “nós” in the Present and Past tense (P.P.S.) is the same. Verbs ending in “-air” in P.P.S

Before conjugating a verb in P.P.S., pay attention to the letter “a” before the ending “-ir“, because this changes the scheme of actions. Of course, the difference is small. In oral speech, it is not heard at all, but it is important to know this nuance for spelling. We remove the “-ir” combination and add:

No, this is not a mistake. For the pronouns “eles, elas, vocês” the ending in P.P.S. the verb in the infinitive with the ending “-air” is really the same as the verb with the ending “-ir“.

Tu saíste da casa muito tarde. Atrasaste-te? (You left the house very late. Late?)

Eles distraíram-me, por isso eu não reparei num erro. (They distracted me, so I couldn’t spot the error.)

As you can see, the conjugation of regular verbs is a simple operation to change the ending, nothing more. However, there are irregular verbs that change quite a lot.

Irregular Verbs

Still, regular verbs predominate in Portuguese, so you shouldn’t be upset that now we’ll tell you about some irregular ones. As a result, it’s pretty easy to learn their conjugation forms. You might think that all the most important verbs of the language are irregular, which only complicates the learning of Portuguese. In fact, the opposite is true.

When you often use irregular verbs, you memorize their forms much faster and then wield them automatically.

Let’s start with two verbs whose irregular conjugations are very similar in P.P.S. – “estar” (to be) and “ter” (to have). See the table below and see for yourself:

Look how interesting – the difference is only in the first two letters “es-“.

Ela já teve o exame da condução. (She already had an objection exam.)

Nós estivemos no trabalho durante uma hora e resolvemos um problema. (We were at work for one hour and we fixed the problem.)

Next on the list of irregular verbs in P.P.S. is the verb “fazer” (to do).

First, we’ll show you how it conjugates, and then we’ll explain how it’s easier to remember.

It is important to remember two forms here – for the pronouns “eu” and “ele, ela, você“. They differ in only one letter, not to mention the fact that the verb form consists of only three letters. Next, we take the form for the pronoun “eu“, use it as a basis, and then do the same as with the rest of the regular verbs with the ending “-er“: fiz + ending.

Os meus avós fizeram um bolo e a minha mãe fez um prato de carne. (My grandparents made a pie and my mom made a meat dish.)

Eu fiz anos há uma semana. Já sou adulto. (I had my birthday a week ago. I’m already an adult.)A similar situation occurs with the irregular verb “ver” (to see). See below:

Here we generally take the form for the pronoun “eu” as a basis and add endings to conjugate regular verbs with the ending “-er“.

Viste ontem um filme novo? (Did you see the new movie yesterday?)

Nós vimos um acidente e somos testemunhas. (We saw the accident and we are witnesses.)

Adverbs

It is important to mention that P.P.S. we often use in conjunction with the following adverbs: ontem (yesterday), anteontem (the day before yesterday), recentemente (recently).

Also: na semana passada (last week), há um mês (a month ago). Moreover, a short-term action in the past is reinforced by the adverb “já” (already), “ainda não” (not yet) and the indication of the term “durante duas horas” (during two hours).

Ela ainda não sugeriu aos pais passar o Natal em França. (She has yet to offer a parent to spend Christmas in France.)Elas estiveram no hospital durante duas horas. (They stayed in the hospital for two hours.)

Conclusion

Perhaps there is nothing more to add. There are still irregular verbs, but we will talk about them another time, for example, in the classroom at our school. You know where to come for a dose of knowledge – to our school!