Conditional Composto (teria feito) | Portuguese (Brazil) Grammar

The condicional composto is how Portuguese says "would have done" — the tense of regret, missed chances, and alternate pasts. Eu teria comprado a casa, mas não tinha dinheiro ("I would have bought the house, but I didn't have the money"). It pairs the conditional of ter with a past participle, and it almost always lives in a sentence about something that didn't happen. If the simple conditional (compraria) imagines a different present or future, the compound conditional reaches back and imagines a different past.

How it is built

The recipe is mechanical and never varies: take ter in the simple conditional, then add the past participle of the main verb.

Subject	ter (conditional)	participle
eu	teria	teria comprado
você / ele / ela	teria	teria comprado
nós	teríamos	teríamos comprado
vocês / eles / elas	teriam	teriam comprado

Notice the accents: teríamos carries an acute on the í (the stress falls there), while teria and teriam do not. This is the single most common spelling slip with this tense — writing teriamos without the accent is a misspelling, not a typo.

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The participle never changes to agree with the subject when ter is the auxiliary. It is always comprado, feito, dito — never comprada or compradas. Agreement only happens with ser and estar, not with ter in compound tenses.

Eu teria comprado a casa se tivesse dinheiro.

I would have bought the house if I'd had the money.

Com mais tempo, nós teríamos terminado o projeto.

With more time, we would have finished the project.

Eles teriam vindo, mas o voo foi cancelado.

They would have come, but the flight was canceled.

Irregular participles still apply

Because the second half of this tense is just a past participle, every irregular participle you already know carries over: fazer → feito, dizer → dito, ver → visto, pôr → posto, abrir → aberto, escrever → escrito, ganhar → ganho/ganhado.

Eu nunca teria dito uma coisa dessas pra ela.

I would never have said a thing like that to her.

Você teria feito diferente no meu lugar?

Would you have done it differently in my place?

The core use: the unrealized past

The compound conditional describes an action that could have happened under different circumstances but didn't. This is why it so often carries a tone of regret, reproach, or counterfactual reasoning. The reality is fixed; you are imagining the road not taken.

Sinceramente, eu teria preferido que você me avisasse antes.

Honestly, I would have preferred that you'd warned me beforehand.

A gente teria chegado na hora se não fosse o trânsito.

We would have arrived on time if it weren't for the traffic.

The contrast with English is clean here: English also uses a three-word stack ("would have arrived"), so the structure feels familiar. The trap is not the structure — it's the other half of the sentence, which is where Portuguese diverges sharply.

The full counterfactual sentence: se + pluperfect subjunctive + conditional composto

The compound conditional rarely travels alone. Its natural home is the third type of conditional sentence, the one about an impossible or unfulfilled past. The pattern is rigid:

Se + mais-que-perfeito do subjuntivo (tivesse + participle) → condicional composto (teria + participle)

Se eu tivesse sabido, eu teria avisado todo mundo.

If I had known, I would have warned everyone.

Se vocês tivessem estudado, teriam passado na prova.

If you all had studied, you would have passed the exam.

Se não tivesse chovido, o jogo teria acontecido.

If it hadn't rained, the game would have happened.

Here is the key point for English speakers. English uses the same word "had" in both halves of "If I had known, I would have warned" — a past perfect in the if-clause and a "would have" in the result. Portuguese is stricter: the if-clause demands the imperfect subjunctive of ter (tivesse), not the indicative tinha. Writing Se eu tinha sabido... is a genuine grammatical error, even though English would let you get away with the indicative-looking "had."

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Lock in this skeleton: Se... tivesse [feito], ... teria [feito]. The if-clause is always tivesse; the result clause is always teria. They are mirror images — both compound, both built on a past participle.

Se ele tivesse me ligado, eu teria atendido na mesma hora.

If he had called me, I would have answered right away.

A colloquial Brazilian shortcut: ia + infinitive

In everyday spoken Brazilian Portuguese, you will constantly hear a lighter substitute for the full counterfactual. Instead of stacking two compound tenses, speakers use the imperfect of ir plus an infinitive in the result clause:

Se eu tivesse dinheiro, eu ia comprar a casa.

If I'd had the money, I'd have bought the house. (colloquial)

Se a gente tivesse saído mais cedo, ia dar tempo.

If we'd left earlier, we'd have made it in time. (colloquial)

This ia comprar construction is the same one Brazilians use to replace the simple conditional (ia comprar for compraria). In casual speech it stretches to cover the past-unrealized meaning too, especially when the if-clause already makes the counterfactual past clear. It is fully natural (informal), but you should not use it in writing or formal speech, where teria comprado is expected.

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Match the register. In a text message to a friend, eu ia ter comprado or eu ia comprar is normal. In an essay, an email to a professor, or a job interview, use eu teria comprado. Mixing the colloquial ia form into formal writing reads as careless.

Softening and conjecture about the past

Beyond counterfactuals, the compound conditional also expresses polite conjecture or hedged claims about the past — "would have" in the sense of "presumably did." Journalism uses this constantly to report unconfirmed information.

Segundo a polícia, o suspeito teria fugido pela porta dos fundos.

According to police, the suspect reportedly fled through the back door. (formal / journalistic)

O ator teria recusado o papel por causa do salário.

The actor reportedly turned down the role because of the pay. (formal / journalistic)

In this (formal) journalistic use, teria signals "this is alleged, not confirmed" — a hedge that protects the writer from stating an unverified fact as truth. English does the same thing with "reportedly" or "is said to have," but Portuguese can carry the entire nuance in the verb form alone.

Common Mistakes

❌ Se eu tinha sabido, eu teria avisado.

Incorrect — the if-clause needs the imperfect subjunctive of ter, not the indicative tinha.

✅ Se eu tivesse sabido, eu teria avisado.

If I had known, I would have warned (you).

❌ Nós teriamos comprado a casa.

Incorrect — teríamos is stressed on the í and requires the acute accent.

✅ Nós teríamos comprado a casa.

We would have bought the house.

❌ Eu teria comprada a casa.

Incorrect — the participle does not agree with the subject when ter is the auxiliary.

✅ Eu teria comprado a casa.

I would have bought the house.

❌ Eu teria fazido tudo diferente.

Incorrect — fazer has an irregular participle, feito, not the regular fazido.

✅ Eu teria feito tudo diferente.

I would have done everything differently.

❌ Se ela teria estudado, passaria na prova.

Incorrect — the if-clause cannot take teria; the conditional belongs only in the result clause.

✅ Se ela tivesse estudado, teria passado na prova.

If she had studied, she would have passed the exam.

Key Takeaways

Form: teria / teríamos / teriam
- past participle. The participle is invariable.
Meaning: the unrealized past — what would have happened but didn't.
The sentence frame: Se
- tivesse
  - participle → teria
    - participle. The if-clause never uses the indicative tinha and never uses teria.
Colloquial swap (informal): eu ia comprar / eu ia ter comprado for eu teria comprado — fine in speech, avoid in writing.
Journalistic hedge (formal): teria fugido = "reportedly fled," marking unconfirmed claims.

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