Imperfeito of Ser | Portuguese (Brazil) Grammar

The imperfeito of ser ("to be") is era — and it is the single most irregular form in the entire imperfeito. While almost every verb in Brazilian Portuguese is predictable in this tense, ser throws out its stem entirely and replaces it with something unrelated. The upside: era is enormously common (it is the past-tense backbone of descriptions), so you will internalize it fast.

Conjugation

Subject	Conjugation
eu	era
tu (regional)	eras
você / ele / ela	era
nós	éramos
vocês / eles / elas	eram

Note the acute accent on éramos — it marks the stress (É-ra-mos) and is obligatory. As with all imperfeito verbs, eu era and ele/ela era are identical, so subject pronouns matter.

Eu era muito tímido na escola.

I was very shy in school.

Nós éramos vizinhos antes de eles se mudarem.

We were neighbors before they moved away.

The only truly suppletive form

"Suppletive" means a form that comes from a completely different root — like English "go / went," where "went" has no historical connection to "go." In the Brazilian imperfeito, ser is the only verb that does this.

Every other irregular imperfeito verb keeps a recognizable, repeating stem:

Infinitive	Imperfeito (eu)	What's irregular
ser	era	entirely suppletive — no link to "ser"
ter	tinha	predictable -inha stem (tinha, tínhamos, tinham)
vir	vinha	predictable -inha stem (vinha, vínhamos, vinham)
pôr	punha	predictable -unha stem (punha, púnhamos, punham)

In other words, once you accept the -inha / -unha stems for ter, vir, and pôr, they conjugate with totally regular endings. Ser is the lone verb where you simply have to memorize a brand-new word. The good news is that there is exactly one such word — era — and you will hear it constantly.

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There is no logical shortcut for era. It is the one fully irregular imperfeito form in the language. Memorize the set — era, era, éramos, eram — and you are done with imperfeito surprises.

Where era earns its keep: background and description

Recall that the imperfeito is the tense of background description — what things, people, and situations were like. Since "being" is the verb of states and identity, era shows up in nearly every descriptive past sentence.

Describing states and scenes

O dia estava nublado, mas o clima era agradável.

The day was cloudy, but the weather was pleasant.

A casa era enorme e tinha um jardim nos fundos.

The house was huge and had a garden out back.

Use era (from ser) for inherent, defining traits of the scene; use estava (from estar) for temporary conditions. In the first example above, the cloudiness is a passing state (estava nublado) while the overall pleasant climate is treated as a defining characteristic (era agradável).

Past habitual identity — "used to be"

Ela era professora antes de virar advogada.

She used to be a teacher before becoming a lawyer.

Aquele prédio era um cinema nos anos 80.

That building used to be a movie theater in the '80s.

Here era captures an identity that held over a stretch of past time and has since changed — exactly the "used to be" sense.

Time and age

Telling time in the past and stating someone's age both lean on era (and on ter for age):

Era meia-noite quando o telefone tocou.

It was midnight when the phone rang.

Eu tinha dez anos e ela era a minha melhor amiga.

I was ten years old and she was my best friend.

Notice the division of labor in the last example: age uses ter (tinha dez anos — literally "had ten years"), while the relationship/identity uses ser (era a minha melhor amiga). This is a classic A2 pairing — get comfortable saying both together.

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Age in Portuguese uses ter ("to have"), not ser: eu tinha dez anos, never eu era dez anos. But identity and roles use ser: ela era minha amiga. They often appear in the same sentence.

Era vs. foi: the imperfeito/perfeito split for "to be"

Ser has both an imperfeito (era) and a pretérito perfeito (foi), and the choice follows the usual logic:

era — describes a lasting state or background ("was / used to be")
foi — reports a bounded, completed fact or event ("was / turned out to be")

A festa era animada e todo mundo dançava.

The party was lively and everyone was dancing. — describing the scene (era)

A festa foi ótima, valeu a pena ir.

The party was great, it was worth going. — a finished verdict on the whole event (foi)

The first sentence paints the party as an ongoing backdrop; the second delivers a completed assessment of the party as a wrapped-up event. English uses "was" for both, which is why this distinction has to be learned rather than translated.

Common Mistakes

❌ Nós eramos vizinhos.

Incorrect — missing the mandatory acute accent on éramos.

✅ Nós éramos vizinhos.

We were neighbors.

❌ Eu era dez anos quando me mudei.

Incorrect — age uses 'ter', not 'ser'.

✅ Eu tinha dez anos quando me mudei.

I was ten years old when I moved.

❌ Quando eu seria criança, tudo era mais simples.

Incorrect — uses the conditional 'seria' (would be) instead of the imperfeito 'era'.

✅ Quando eu era criança, tudo era mais simples.

When I was a child, everything was simpler.

❌ A festa era ótima, valeu a pena ir.

Awkward — for a finished verdict on the whole event, the perfeito 'foi' is natural.

✅ A festa foi ótima, valeu a pena ir.

The party was great, it was worth going.

The seria/era confusion in the third pair mirrors the imperfeito-versus-conditional trap that affects -er/-ir verbs: seria (infinitive ser + -ia) is "would be," while era is "was / used to be." Keep them apart.

Key Takeaways

The imperfeito of ser is era, era, éramos, eram (plus regional eras).
Era is the only fully suppletive imperfeito form in Brazilian Portuguese — every other verb is morphologically transparent.
Use era for lasting states, background description, past identity ("used to be"), and telling time; use ter (tinha) for age.
Don't confuse era (imperfeito, "was") with seria (conditional, "would be") or with foi (perfeito, "was / turned out to be").

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