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Olá, pessoal!

In today’s post we are going to learn how to say “I had done”, “I had gone”, “I had worked” etc. It’s simple: use the verb “ter” in the imperfect form (tinha, tinha, tinha, tínhamos, tinham, tinham) + the past participle of the main verb.

Here’s an example with regular verb trabalhar (to work)

Afirmative

Eu tinha trabalhado = I had worked
Você tinha trabalhado = You had worked
Ele tinha trabalhado = He had worked
Ela tinha trabalhado = She had worked
A gente tinha trabalhado = We had worked (familiar)
Nós tínhamos trabalhado = We had worked
Vocês tinham trabalhado = You had worked (plural)
Eles tinham trabalhado = They had worked (masculine plural)
Elas tinham trabalhado = They had worked (feminine plural)

Negative

Eu não tinha trabalhado = I hadn’t worked
Você não tinha trabalhado = You hadn’t worked
Ele não tinha trabalhado = He hadn’t worked
Ela não tinha trabalhado = She hadn’t worked
A gente não tinha trabalhado = We hadn’t worked (familiar)
Nós não tínhamos trabalhado = We hadn’t worked
Vocês não tinham trabalhado = You hadn’t worked (plural)
Eles não tinham trabalhado = They hadn’t worked (masculine plural)
Elas não tinham trabalhado = They hadn’t worked (feminine plural)

Interrogative

Eu tinha trabalhado? = Had I worked?
Você tinha trabalhado? = Had you worked?
Ele tinha trabalhado? = Had he worked?
Ela tinha trabalhado? = Had she worked?
A gente tinha trabalhado? = Had we worked? (familiar)
Nós tínhamos trabalhado? = Had we worked?
Vocês tinham trabalhado? = Had you worked? (plural)
Eles tinham trabalhado? = Had they worked? (masculine plural)
Elas tinham trabalhado? = Had they worked? (feminine plural)

Some examples:

Quando eu cheguei em casa, ele tinha ido embora. – When I arrived home, he had left.
Não fui ao cinema porque já tinha visto o filme. – I didn’t go to the movies because I had already seen the movie.
Ele nunca tinha visto uma mulher tão bonita. – He had never seen such a beautiful woman.
Nós viajamos de ônibus porque tínhamos vendido nosso carro. – We traveled by bus because we had sold our car.
Eu já tinha resolvido que ia sair quando ele ligou. – I had already decided I was going to go out when he called.
O avião já tinha decolado quando chegamos ao aeroporto. – The plane had already taken off when we arrived at the airport.

The Participles

Some participles are regular:

andar [walk] – andado
falar [speak] – falado
beber [drink] – bebido
comer [eat] – comido
decidir [decide] – decidido
insistir [insist] – insistido

And some are irregular:

ver [see] – visto
vir [come] – vindo
pôr [put] – posto
fazer [do/make] – feito
cobrir [cover] – coberto
abrir [open] – aberto
descobrir [discover] – descoberto
escrever [write] – escrito
dizer [say] – dito

We use this verb tense the same way we use the Past Perfect in English, so it’s no big deal – you only need to get the verb ter + the past participle right. Yes, you need to study hard – there’s not a magic way to learn them.

See you next time!

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