The condicional composto (also called the futuro do pretérito composto) is Portuguese's "would have" tense. Built from the conditional of ter plus a past participle — teria falado, teria ido, teríamos sabido — it names an outcome that would have happened under conditions that did not actually hold: Eu teria ajudado se soubesse ("I would have helped if I'd known"). This page treats it as part of the compound-tenses system; for the standalone formation drill, see Conditional Composto (formation).
Formation
Take the conditional (futuro do pretérito) of ter and add an invariable past participle.
| Subject | ter (conditional) |
| Example: falar |
|---|---|---|---|
| eu | teria | falado | eu teria falado |
| tu (regional) | terias | falado | tu terias falado |
| você / ele / ela | teria | falado | ele teria falado |
| nós | teríamos | falado | nós teríamos falado |
| vocês / eles / elas | teriam | falado | eles teriam falado |
Watch the accents: every form carries an acute accent on the i of the stem — teria, terias, teríamos, teriam. The nós form teríamos is a proparoxytone with the stress (and accent) on the i. The tu form terias is listed for completeness but is regional in Brazil (heard in parts of the South and in the Northeast); most of the country uses você with the teria form.
The core use: results of past counterfactuals
The condicional composto is the result half of a past contrary-to-fact sentence. Its natural partner is the mais-que-perfeito do subjuntivo in the se-clause:
| Condition (mais-que-perfeito subj.) | Result (condicional composto) |
|---|---|
| Se ela não tivesse ficado doente, | ela teria ido à festa. |
| If she hadn't gotten sick, | she would have gone to the party. |
Ela teria ido à festa se não estivesse doente.
She would have gone to the party if she hadn't been sick.
Eu teria ajudado se soubesse que vocês estavam com problemas.
I would have helped if I'd known you were having problems.
A gente teria conseguido se tivesse começado mais cedo.
We would have made it if we had started earlier.
The se-clause names the unmet condition; the condicional composto names the outcome that therefore never came to pass. For the full pairing, see Conditional Sentences Overview.
Other uses
Standalone regret or speculation about the past
The condicional composto can stand alone, without an explicit se-clause, when the condition is understood from context.
Eu nunca teria imaginado uma coisa dessas.
I would never have imagined such a thing.
Com mais tempo, eles teriam feito um trabalho melhor.
With more time, they would have done a better job.
Here com mais tempo ("with more time") replaces a full se-clause but carries the same counterfactual force.
Conjecture about a past event (the "probably" reading)
In journalistic and formal register, the condicional composto can express an unconfirmed claim about the past — equivalent to "reportedly" or "is said to have."
O suspeito teria fugido pela porta dos fundos, segundo testemunhas.
The suspect reportedly fled through the back door, according to witnesses. (journalistic)
This is a hallmark of news writing, where the journalist signals that the information is alleged rather than verified.
The colloquial alternative: ia ter + participle
In everyday Brazilian speech, the condicional composto is frequently replaced by a periphrastic form built on the imperfect of ir: ia ter + participle.
Eu ia ter ajudado se soubesse. (informal)
I would have helped if I'd known.
A gente ia ter conseguido se tivesse começado mais cedo. (informal)
We would have made it if we'd started earlier.
This ia ter ajudado form is extremely common in casual conversation, mirroring how Brazilians replace the simple conditional (ajudaria) with ia ajudar in speech. It is informal: perfectly natural when talking with friends, but you should use teria ajudado in writing, formal speech, and any careful register. The synthetic teria + participle is the standard and preferred form on paper.
Source-language comparison
The mapping to English is clean: teria falado = "would have spoken." Both languages build a "would" auxiliary plus a perfect participle. The structural parallel makes this one of the more intuitive compound tenses for English speakers.
Two things to watch, though. First, English allows "would have" to creep into the if-clause in casual speech ("if I would have known"); Portuguese never does — the se-clause stays subjunctive (se soubesse, se tivesse sabido). Second, English has no direct equivalent of the journalistic "reportedly" reading of teria fugido; you must translate it with an adverb ("reportedly," "allegedly"), not with "would have."
Common mistakes
❌ Se eu teria sabido, teria ajudado.
Incorrect — the se-clause cannot take the conditional; it needs the subjunctive 'tivesse sabido'.
✅ Se eu tivesse sabido, teria ajudado.
If I had known, I would have helped.
The classic transfer from English "if I would have known." In Portuguese, teria belongs only in the result clause; the se-clause is subjunctive.
❌ Nós teriamos ido se pudéssemos.
Incorrect — missing the accent on the nós form.
✅ Nós teríamos ido se pudéssemos.
We would have gone if we could have.
Dropping the acute accent on teríamos. The nós form is a proparoxytone and must be written with the accent.
❌ Eu teria fazido um trabalho melhor.
Incorrect — 'fazer' has the irregular participle 'feito', not 'fazido'.
✅ Eu teria feito um trabalho melhor.
I would have done a better job.
The condicional composto uses ordinary past participles, so irregular ones (feito, dito, visto, posto, aberto) apply. Inventing a regular fazido is a common slip.
❌ Ela iria ter ido à festa, no relatório oficial.
Stylistically wrong — the colloquial 'ia ter ido' should be the synthetic 'teria ido' in formal writing.
✅ Ela teria ido à festa.
She would have gone to the party.
Using the informal periphrastic ia ter / iria ter in formal writing. Reserve it for casual speech; write teria.
Key takeaways
- Form it with ter in the conditional (teria, teríamos, teriam) plus an invariable participle.
- Its core job is the result of a past counterfactual, paired with se + tivesse... in the condition.
- It can also stand alone for regret/speculation, and in journalism it can mean "reportedly did."
- Casual speech often swaps in ia ter + participle; teria + participle is the standard written form.
- Always accent teríamos, and never let teria leak into the se-clause.
Now practice Portuguese
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Portuguese→Related Topics
- Conditional Composto (teria feito)B1 — How to form and use the compound conditional to talk about what would have happened in the past.
- Mais-que-Perfeito do Subjuntivo (tivesse falado)B1 — The imperfect subjunctive of 'ter' plus a past participle — the workhorse of regret, hindsight, and 'if only' counterfactuals about the past.
- Compound Tenses OverviewB1 — A map of the Brazilian Portuguese compound tenses, all built with ter + past participle, and why haver as an auxiliary is essentially literary.
- Futuro do Pretérito (Conditional): OverviewB1 — The Brazilian conditional — its four core uses, how it's formed, and why everyday speech often swaps it for the imperfect.
- Conditional Sentences: OverviewB1 — A map of Brazilian Portuguese conditional sentences — real, hypothetical-present, and counterfactual-past 'se' clauses, plus non-'se' conditionals like 'caso' and 'a menos que'.