Hello, there!
Some people think Portuguese is a very hard language because of its several verb conjugations. This may be true in some cases but there are some verb phrases that are pretty easy to use, like shoulda (should have), coulda (could have), woulda (would have) and as a bonus, musta (must have)!
Shoulda!
Let’s take for example these sentences in English:
I should have woken up earlier.
You shouldn’t have said that to her.
Should we have arrived already?
In Portuguese we use the verb dever in the conditional form (deveria, deveria, deveria, deveríamos, deveriam, deveriam) + ter + the past participle of the main verb. Check out the sentences above in Portuguese:
I should have woken up earlier.
Eu deveria ter acordado mais cedo.
You shouldn’t have said that to her.
Você não deveria ter dito aquilo para ela.
Should we have arrived already?
Nós já deveríamos ter chegado?
Coulda!
It works the same way. We use the following phrase: verb poder in the conditional tense (poderia, poderia, poderia, poderíamos, poderiam, poderiam) + ter + the past participle of the main verb. Some examples:
O Pedro não deveria ter ido fazer trilha sozinho nas montanhas. Ele poderia ter se perdido!
Pedro shouldn’t have gone hiking in the mountains by himself. He could have gotten lost!
Você não deveria ter atravessado o rio nadando. Você poderia ter se afogado!
You shouldn’t have swum across the river. You could have drowned!
Vocês não deveriam ter brincado na chuva. Vocês poderiam ter pegado um resfriado!
You shouldn’t have played in the rain. You could have caught a cold!
Woulda!
Use the phrase: verb ter in the conditional (teria, teria, teria, teríamos, teriam, teriam) + the past participle of the main verb. Check out some examples:
O que você teria feito? Você teria feito isso diferente?
What would you have done? Would you have done that differently?
Se o tempo estivesse melhor, eu teria ido também.
If the weather had been better, I would have gone too.
Se você tivesse me dito que não viria, eu teria pegado um taxi.
If you had told me you weren’t coming, I would have taken a cab.
Musta!
To say that something must have happenend, as in a strong possibility, we use the phrase the verb dever in the present (deve, deve, deve, devemos, devem, devem) + ter + the past participle of the main verb. Some examples for you:
O Ricardo chegou tarde na aula hoje. Ele deve ter perdido hora.
Ricardo came to class late today. He must have overslept.
O Walter estava de mau humor hoje. Ele deve ter brigado com sua esposa de novo.
Walter was in a bad mood today. He must have argued with his wife again.
Você conversou durante o sono ontem. Você deve ter tido um pesadelo!
You talked in your sleep yesterday. You must have had a nightmare!
CALL TO ACTION!
You only learn how to speak a language by speaking it, so why don’t you make a list of things you should have done today (but didn’t) or things you shouldn’t have done (but did!) and leave your answers in the comments area? Let’s practice Portuguese!
This is it for today! See you next time!
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Comments:
An:
Thank you so much, Adir!
I had always problem with conditionals, but at least this will be ok.:)
I would have a few question maybe you can help me, although it is different from conditionals.
Ele poderia ter se perdido!
“se” means himself, here because of the verb perder-se but if I use “ele mesmo” ou “ela mesma” most of the time in this case can I use that as well or I am incorrect but understandable? example: tenta conseguir atencao para ele mesmo
And another question, i try to seek it in dictionaries and just in google but I did not really find anything useful, how did brazilians say ‘dump on sy’? It means treat someone badly or unfairly something like that.
Thank you for your help in advance!
Adir Ferreira:
Hi, An!
In Portuguese there are some verbs called “reflexivos”. These verbs must have a “se” in their conjugation (perder-se, queixar-se, sentir-se) and they are not translated as reflexive verbs into English (to get lost, to complain, to feel), so the “se” here is not exactly an action done by and toward the same person.
As for the expression, if I got that right, you could say “tratar alguém mal”. If I come up with some more expressions I will put them here in the comment area, ok?
Thank you for commenting!
willem rabbeljee:
Olá Adir,
Like your blog immensely and it really is a great support (next to DuoLingo) in my struggle to learn Brazilian Portuguese.
Talking about ‘should’ and ‘must’…both are using the verb ‘dever’+ ter+ p.p. But, taking for example “Ela deve ter ouvido a noticia” it could be translated like “She must have heard the news” as well as “She should have heard the news”. I realize that in most cases the context will be clear enough but…it might be confusing in some cases. Or, am I wrong?
Good luck with this great blog, this great language-learning tool.
kind regards,
Willem.
Jaguariúna
An:
Hi Adir,
thank you so much the explanation and for help! Ok, I will check it out later too, whether something other expression came to your mind or not.
Keep up this great work!
Thanks again,
An