One of the core jobs of the imperfeito is to describe what used to happen — actions that were repeated, habitual, or customary in the past. When you talk about your childhood routine, the way things were "back then," or what you always did on Sundays, Portuguese reaches for the imperfect. This is the tense of nostalgia and routine.
The basic idea: a habit, not a single event
The imperfect paints the past as an open, ongoing backdrop. When applied to a repeated action, it tells the listener "this was my habit; this happened over and over." It does not put a frame around any single occurrence. Compare these two thoughts:
- A single, completed event → preterite (pretérito perfeito).
- A repeated, habitual pattern → imperfect (imperfeito).
Quando eu morava no Rio, eu ia à praia todo domingo.
When I lived in Rio, I used to go to the beach every Sunday.
Minha avó cozinhava feijão todo sábado.
My grandmother used to cook beans every Saturday.
In both sentences, nothing happens once. We are describing a recurring routine, so every verb is in the imperfect: morava, ia, cozinhava.
Three English phrases that all become the imperfect
This is where Portuguese diverges most sharply from English. Three different English structures map onto the single Portuguese imperfect:
- "used to" — I used to swim.
- habitual "would" — Every summer we would swim.
- "always / every day did" — We always swam there.
Antigamente eu fumava, mas parei faz dez anos.
I used to smoke, but I quit ten years ago.
Todo verão a gente viajava pro litoral e ficava lá o mês inteiro.
Every summer we would travel to the coast and stay there the whole month.
Meu pai sempre acordava às cinco da manhã.
My dad always woke up at five in the morning.
The "usava" trap
The single most common mistake English speakers make here comes from translating "used to" word for word. Portuguese does have the verb usar (to use), and its imperfect is usava — but usava means "was using / used (an object)," never "used to (do something)." There is no Portuguese auxiliary equivalent of English "used to." The habitual meaning is baked into the imperfect ending itself.
Eu usava óculos quando era mais novo.
I used to wear glasses when I was younger. (here 'usar' literally means 'to wear/use')
That sentence is correct only because usar genuinely means "to wear" here. But you cannot stack usava in front of another verb to manufacture "used to":
❌ Eu usava ir à praia todo domingo.
Incorrect — there is no 'used to + verb' construction in Portuguese.
✅ Eu ia à praia todo domingo.
I used to go to the beach every Sunday.
The "would" trap — far more dangerous
English "would" is treacherous because it does two completely different jobs, and Portuguese splits them into two different tenses:
- Habitual past "would" = "would, as in used to" → imperfeito.
- Hypothetical/conditional "would" = "would, if something were true" → condicional (iria, faria, compraria).
The same English word, two unrelated grammars. Consider:
- When I was young, I *would walk to school. → habitual → imperfect: *ia a pé pra escola.
- If I had a car, I *would drive. → hypothetical → conditional: *dirigiria.
Quando criança, ele ia pra escola a pé todo dia.
As a child, he would walk to school every day. (habitual → imperfect)
Se eu tivesse tempo, eu iria com você.
If I had time, I would go with you. (hypothetical → conditional)
Using the conditional iria for the habitual meaning is a classic error: ❌ Quando criança, ele iria pra escola a pé. That sentence sounds to a Brazilian like "As a child, he would (hypothetically) go to school on foot" — grammatical nonsense. The test: if "would" means "used to," it is the imperfect. If "would" depends on an if, it is the conditional. See the conditional for hypotheticals for the other half of this picture.
Time markers that signal the habitual imperfect
Certain time expressions are reliable flags. When you see or want to say one of these, the imperfect is almost always correct:
| Portuguese | English |
|---|---|
| antigamente | in the old days, formerly |
| naquela época | back then, at that time |
| sempre | always |
| todo dia / toda semana | every day / every week |
| todo sábado / domingo | every Saturday / Sunday |
| às vezes | sometimes |
| geralmente / normalmente | usually / normally |
| de vez em quando | now and then |
Naquela época, a gente não tinha celular e se encontrava na praça.
Back then, we didn't have cell phones and we would meet up in the town square.
Às vezes ela chegava atrasada, mas era uma ótima professora.
Sometimes she would arrive late, but she was a great teacher.
Habitual imperfect vs. one-time preterite
The cleanest way to feel the contrast is to put the two tenses side by side with the same verb. Notice how the time marker tilts the meaning:
Eu fui à praia ontem.
I went to the beach yesterday. (one specific time → preterite)
Eu ia à praia todo domingo.
I used to go to the beach every Sunday. (habitual → imperfect)
The first sentence reports a single, bounded event: you went, you came back, done. The second describes a pattern with no particular boundary: this was simply what you did, Sunday after Sunday. The verb stem is identical (ir); the aspect — how the action is framed in time — is what changes. For the full decision framework, see preterite vs. imperfect overview.
A note on "costumava"
Brazilian Portuguese does have a verb that comes close to "used to": costumar (to be in the habit of), whose imperfect costumava + infinitive means "used to." It is correct and natural, especially in slightly more careful speech.
A gente costumava se reunir na casa da vovó nos feriados.
We used to gather at Grandma's house on holidays.
But notice that even here, costumava is doing the work that English "used to" does — and you could just as easily say a gente se reunia. The plain imperfect is the default; costumava is an optional emphasis on the habitualness itself. Do not feel you need it.
Common Mistakes
❌ Quando eu morava no Rio, eu fui à praia todo domingo.
Incorrect — preterite 'fui' clashes with the habitual marker 'todo domingo.'
✅ Quando eu morava no Rio, eu ia à praia todo domingo.
When I lived in Rio, I used to go to the beach every Sunday.
❌ Eu usava jogar futebol toda tarde.
Incorrect — 'usava + verb' does not exist; this is English 'used to' translated literally.
✅ Eu jogava futebol toda tarde.
I used to play soccer every afternoon.
❌ Quando criança, eu iria pra escola a pé.
Incorrect — conditional 'iria' for a habitual past action.
✅ Quando criança, eu ia pra escola a pé.
As a child, I would walk to school.
❌ Antigamente nós comemos arroz e feijão todo dia.
Incorrect — present/preterite 'comemos' with the habitual marker 'antigamente.'
✅ Antigamente nós comíamos arroz e feijão todo dia.
In the old days we used to eat rice and beans every day.
Key Takeaways
- The imperfect expresses habits and routines: "used to," habitual "would," and "always/every day did" all become the imperfect.
- There is no "used to + verb" construction; never use usava for it — the meaning lives in the ending.
- English "would" splits in two: habitual → imperfect; hypothetical → conditional. Always ask which one you mean.
- Time markers like antigamente, sempre, todo domingo, às vezes reliably signal the habitual imperfect.
- One specific occasion → preterite (fui); a recurring pattern → imperfect (ia).
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Start learning Portuguese→Related Topics
- Pretérito Imperfeito OverviewA2 — An introduction to the pretérito imperfeito — Brazilian Portuguese's tense for ongoing, habitual, and background past events.
- Imperfeito for Ongoing Past ActionA2 — Using the imperfect for actions that were in progress in the past — the equivalent of the English past progressive.
- Imperfeito for Background DescriptionA2 — Using the imperfect to set the scene in a past narrative — describing settings, conditions, and states.
- Pretérito Perfeito vs Imperfeito: OverviewA2 — The central contrast in the Portuguese past: perfeito for completed events that move the story forward, imperfeito for ongoing, habitual, and background states.
- Pretérito Perfeito for Completed ActionsA1 — The core use of the Brazilian pretérito perfeito for finished, time-bounded past actions — and why English 'I have done' almost always maps to it, not to 'tenho feito'.
- Conditional for Hypothetical SituationsB1 — Using the conditional in 'if...would' sentences, plus the colloquial Brazilian habit of replacing it with the imperfect indicative.