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Estava + Gerúndio: Past Progressive

The past progressive — "I was eating when she arrived" — describes an action that was ongoing in the past, usually as a backdrop to some other event. Brazilian Portuguese builds it with the imperfect of estar plus the gerund: estava comendo. This page shows the form, sets it next to the simple imperfect (comia), and explains why both are correct and how a Brazilian chooses between them.

The formula: estar (imperfect) + gerund

This is the same machinery as the present progressive, but with estar in the imperfect instead of the present. The imperfect of estar is fully regular: estava, estava, estávamos, estavam.

Subjectestar (imperfect)
  • gerund
Example
euestavacomendoestava comendo
você / ele / elaestavacomendoestava comendo
nósestávamoscomendoestávamos comendo
vocês / eles / elasestavamcomendoestavam comendo

Note that eu and ele/ela/você share the same form, estava — so context or a pronoun tells you who the subject is. As always, only estar inflects; the gerund stays put. (For the gerund itself, see forming the gerund.)

Eu estava comendo quando ela chegou.

I was eating when she arrived.

A gente estava saindo de casa quando começou a chover.

We were leaving the house when it started to rain.

Eles estavam dormindo, por isso não atenderam.

They were sleeping, that's why they didn't answer.

The classic use: an interrupted background action

The past progressive shines in the "background + interruption" pattern. The ongoing action takes estava + gerúndio; the sudden event that cuts in takes the preterite. English does exactly the same thing: I was watching TV (background) when the phone rang (interruption).

Estava assistindo TV quando o telefone tocou.

I was watching TV when the phone rang.

O que você estava fazendo ontem à noite às onze horas?

What were you doing last night at eleven o'clock?

That second example is the natural way to ask about someone's ongoing activity at a specific past moment — the focus is on what was in progress, not on a completed event.

estava comendo vs. comia: both are correct

Here is the key insight, and it is a stylistic one, not a rule. The plain imperfect comia can do the same job as estava comendo. Both of these sentences are correct Brazilian Portuguese and both mean essentially the same thing:

Eu comia quando ela chegou.

I was eating when she arrived.

Eu estava comendo quando ela chegou.

I was eating when she arrived.

The difference is one of emphasis. The plain imperfect comia is the neutral, all-purpose past-background form. The progressive estava comendo foregrounds the ongoing, in-the-middle-of-it nature of the action — it zooms in on the fact that the eating was actively underway at that instant. Neither is wrong; a Brazilian picks based on how much they want to spotlight the ongoingness.

💡
Think of comia as the wide shot and estava comendo as the close-up. If you want to stress that the action was caught mid-flow — especially when something interrupts it — reach for estava comendo. If you just need a neutral past backdrop, comia is lighter and equally natural.

This is a real advantage for English speakers, because English forces the choice the other way: "I ate when she arrived" and "I was eating when she arrived" mean different things (the first is a sequence, the second an interruption). In Portuguese, comia already carries the "in progress" reading, so comia and estava comendo are near-synonyms, with the progressive simply adding emphasis. See the imperfect for ongoing actions for more on this overlap.

💡
Because the plain imperfect already means "was ...-ing," don't feel you must use the progressive every time English would. Quando eu era criança, eu morava no interior (When I was a child, I lived in the countryside) needs no progressive at all.

Habitual past stays in the simple imperfect

One place the progressive does not fit: repeated, habitual past actions ("I used to..."). That meaning belongs to the plain imperfect alone. Estava comendo describes one specific stretch of eating; it cannot mean "I used to eat."

Quando eu era criança, eu comia muito doce.

When I was a child, I ate (used to eat) a lot of sweets.

Here comia is the only option — estava comendo would wrongly suggest a single occasion of eating in progress, not a childhood habit.

Common Mistakes

❌ Eu estava a comer quando ela chegou.

Incorrect for Brazil — this is the European Portuguese past progressive.

✅ Eu estava comendo quando ela chegou.

Correct: Brazil uses estava + gerund.

❌ Eu estava comendo muito doce quando eu era criança.

Wrong meaning — the progressive can't express a childhood habit.

✅ Eu comia muito doce quando eu era criança.

Correct: habitual past takes the plain imperfect.

❌ Eu estava comido quando ela chegou.

Incorrect — comido is the past participle; the progressive needs the gerund.

✅ Eu estava comendo quando ela chegou.

Correct: estar + gerund (comendo), never the participle.

❌ Nós estava saindo quando começou a chover.

Incorrect — estar must agree with nós (estávamos).

✅ Nós estávamos saindo quando começou a chover.

Correct: the helper carries person and number.

❌ Eu estava comendo, e de repente o telefone estava tocando.

Odd — the sudden interrupting event should be in the preterite, not the progressive.

✅ Eu estava comendo quando o telefone tocou.

Correct: ongoing action = progressive; the interruption = preterite (tocou).

Key Takeaways

  • Past progressive = imperfect of estar (estava / estávamos / estavam) + gerund.
  • Its signature use is the ongoing background action, often interrupted by a preterite event.
  • Estava comendo and the plain imperfect comia are both correct; the progressive foregrounds the ongoing nature, the simple imperfect is neutral.
  • For a habitual past ("used to"), only the plain imperfect works — not the progressive.
  • For Brazil, always use estava comendo, not the European estava a comer.

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