Personal Narrative (B1) | Portuguese (Portugal) Grammar

Portuguese narration lives at the intersection of two past tenses: the pretérito perfeito simples (PPS) for bounded events that push the story forward, and the pretérito imperfeito for background, description, habit, and simultaneous ongoing states. Mastering the two is less about memorising conjugations than about learning to ask the right question of every verb you are about to write: Is this a single, bounded event? Or is it the scenery in which the events happen?

This page walks through a short fictional childhood memory — an afternoon a child spent helping an elderly neighbour after her cat went missing — and annotates every verbal choice. The preterite/imperfect contrast shows up more than fifty times; the pretérito-mais-que-perfeito composto (pluperfect) appears for actions prior to the main past; and the narrative is pinned together by the discourse connectors that any Portuguese storyteller uses instinctively.

The text

Lembro-me como se tivesse sido ontem. Era uma tarde de agosto em Tomar, eu tinha oito anos e estava de férias em casa dos meus avós. Fazia um calor horrível, o tipo de calor que parecia colar a roupa à pele. Brincávamos no quintal, eu e o meu primo Miguel, quando ouvimos alguém a chamar do portão. Era a Dona Olinda, a vizinha do lado, completamente aflita. — Meninos, já viram o meu gato? — perguntou ela, com a voz trémula. — Desapareceu de manhã e ainda não voltou. Nunca o tinha visto fazer isto. A minha avó saiu da cozinha, limpou as mãos ao avental e disse que íamos ajudar. Partimos logo. Andámos por toda a aldeia, perguntámos aos vizinhos, olhámos para debaixo dos carros, chamámos pelo gato ao pé da ribeira. O sol caía cada vez mais forte e eu já estava cansado. Entretanto, a Dona Olinda não parava de dizer que tinha a certeza de que alguma coisa de mau tinha acontecido. De repente, o Miguel gritou: — Está ali! Em cima da figueira! O gato estava mesmo lá, enrolado num ramo alto, a olhar para nós como se não percebesse porque é que andávamos tão agitados. A Dona Olinda chorou de alegria, abraçou-nos a todos e insistiu em dar-nos um pacote inteiro de rebuçados. Enquanto regressávamos a casa, a minha avó pôs-me a mão no ombro e disse baixinho: — Hoje fizeste uma boa ação. Ainda hoje me lembro do sabor daqueles rebuçados e do silêncio da tarde quando finalmente o gato saltou da árvore.

I remember it as if it were yesterday. It was an August afternoon in Tomar, I was eight years old and I was on holiday at my grandparents' house. It was terribly hot, the kind of heat that seemed to glue clothes to your skin. We were playing in the yard, me and my cousin Miguel, when we heard someone calling from the gate. It was Dona Olinda, the next-door neighbour, completely distraught. — Children, have you seen my cat? — she asked, her voice trembling. — He disappeared this morning and still hasn't come back. I'd never seen him do this before. My grandmother came out of the kitchen, wiped her hands on her apron, and said we were going to help. We set off immediately. We walked all over the village, asked the neighbours, looked under the cars, called for the cat by the stream. The sun was beating down harder and harder and I was already tired. Meanwhile, Dona Olinda kept saying that she was sure something bad had happened. Suddenly, Miguel shouted: — He's there! Up in the fig tree! The cat was indeed there, curled up on a high branch, looking at us as if he didn't understand why we were so agitated. Dona Olinda wept with joy, hugged us all and insisted on giving us a whole packet of candies. While we were walking back home, my grandmother put her hand on my shoulder and said softly: — Today you did a good deed. To this day I still remember the taste of those candies and the silence of the afternoon when the cat finally jumped down from the tree.

Grammar in action

Opening: the frame

Lembro-me como se tivesse sido ontem. Era uma tarde de agosto em Tomar, eu tinha oito anos e estava de férias em casa dos meus avós.

Lembro-me — present of lembrar-se, a reflexive verb of memory, with enclitic me. The opening stays in the present because the narrator is remembering now.
Como se tivesse sido ontem — como se + mais-que-perfeito do conjuntivo. Como se is a fixed subjunctive trigger ("as if"), requiring either the imperfect subjunctive (como se fosse) or the pluperfect subjunctive (como se tivesse sido) for the past version. Here the pluperfect subjunctive is perfect for "as if it had happened yesterday".
Era uma tarde de agosto — imperfeito of ser (3rd singular). Setting the scene is almost always imperfect: it describes the enduring background rather than a bounded event. Clock time, weather, age, and ongoing states all take the imperfect.
Em Tomar — real Portuguese town (central Portugal, home of the Convento de Cristo). Grounds the narrative in a specific, recognisable place.
Eu tinha oito anos — imperfeito of ter. Age in the past is always imperfect: tinha oito anos, a minha mãe tinha quarenta. Never the PPS.
Estava de férias — estar de férias is the collocation. Estar
- de
  - noun describes a temporary state: estou de férias, estou de serviço, estava de castigo.
Em casa dos meus avós — em + casa (no article: em casa = "at home"); de + os = dos. Casa de alguém is the Portuguese way to express "someone's house".

Era uma tarde de agosto. Eu tinha oito anos.

It was an August afternoon. I was eight years old.

Estava de férias em casa dos meus avós.

I was on holiday at my grandparents' house.

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For age in the past, Portuguese uses the imperfect without exception: tinha oito anos, tinham vinte anos na altura. The PPS would imply a single bounded event, which age is not. The imperfect signals "a state that lasted".

Setting the scene

Fazia um calor horrível, o tipo de calor que parecia colar a roupa à pele.

Fazia um calor horrível — imperfeito of fazer. Weather in the past is always imperfect when you are describing the atmosphere of a scene: fazia frio, chovia, ventava, fazia sol. PPS would imply a single event ("it made heat and then stopped"), which is not what the speaker means.
Parecia colar — parecer
- infinitive, in the imperfect. Parecia ("seemed") is another classic background verb.
À pele = a + a (obligatory contraction). Body parts take the definite article in Portuguese, not a possessive: colar à pele, not colar à minha pele.

Fazia um calor horrível.

It was terribly hot.

Chovia torrencialmente quando chegámos.

It was pouring with rain when we arrived.

The interrupting event: imperfect + preterite

Brincávamos no quintal, eu e o meu primo Miguel, quando ouvimos alguém a chamar do portão.

Brincávamos — 1st plural imperfeito of brincar. Ongoing action in the background, set in parallel with the subject's state. Crucially, brincávamos does not carry the acute accent (only the preterite 1st plural, brincámos, has the acute). See Regular -ar Preterite.
Ouvimos — 1st plural PPS of ouvir. The interrupting event: a single, bounded act that breaks into the ongoing background. This is the prototypical imperfect-vs-PPS contrast: ongoing brincávamos interrupted by punctual ouvimos.
Alguém a chamar — estar a + infinitivo construction in truncated form. PT-PT uses a + infinitivo where BR Portuguese uses the gerund: alguém a chamar = BR alguém chamando. Note: this is the single most recognisable grammatical marker of the PT-PT/BR split.
Do portão = de + o. Traditional Portuguese houses have a portão (metal gate) separating the front garden from the street.

Brincávamos no quintal quando ouvimos um grito.

We were playing in the yard when we heard a shout.

Estava a ler quando o telefone tocou.

I was reading when the phone rang.

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The backbone of Portuguese narration is the imperfect (ongoing background) + PPS (interrupting event) pattern: brincávamos quando ouvimos, estava a ler quando tocou, dormia quando gritaram. Every narrative is built from these oppositions. Ask yourself: is this verb the scenery, or the moment the scenery was broken?

Direct speech and past-of-past

— Meninos, já viram o meu gato? — perguntou ela, com a voz trémula. — Desapareceu de manhã e ainda não voltou. Nunca o tinha visto fazer isto.

Já viram o meu gato? — direct speech in the pretérito perfeito composto (compound present perfect): ter (present) + past participle visto. In PT-PT this tense carries continuative meaning ("have you repeatedly seen"), but in a fixed question já viu? já viste? já viram? it simply means "have you (already) seen?". A register subtlety: já pushes the compound tense into a point-in-time reading here.
Perguntou — 3rd singular PPS of perguntar. Reporting verbs inside a narrative are almost always in the PPS: disse, perguntou, gritou, respondeu, murmurou.
Com a voz trémula — manner phrase describing how the words came out. Trémula agrees feminine singular with voz.
Desapareceu de manhã — PPS of desaparecer. A bounded event with a defined time anchor (de manhã).
Ainda não voltou — ainda não
- PPS. For negative statements with ainda não, PT-PT uses the PPS, not the present perfect compound. The present perfect compound would be odd here; the speaker means "the event of his return has not yet happened".
Nunca o tinha visto fazer isto — pretérito-mais-que-perfeito composto (compound pluperfect): tinha + visto. This is the tense for "actions prior to another past reference point". Dona Olinda's reference point is the moment the cat disappeared, and "had never seen him do this" describes her knowledge from before that moment. See Pluperfect Compound Form.
O is the 3rd masculine singular direct object pronoun (referring to o gato), placed proclitically before tinha because nunca is a proclisis trigger.

Nunca tinha visto nada assim.

I had never seen anything like it.

Quando chegámos, eles já tinham saído.

When we arrived, they had already left.

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The mais-que-perfeito composto (tinha + particípio) is Portuguese's past-of-past. It translates English "had done" and places the event before another past reference point. Common triggers: quando + PPS ("when X happened, Y had already…"), nunca antes ("never before…"), já ("already…").

The chain of PPS events: note the -ámos accent

A minha avó saiu da cozinha, limpou as mãos ao avental e disse que íamos ajudar. Partimos logo. Andámos por toda a aldeia, perguntámos aos vizinhos, olhámos para debaixo dos carros, chamámos pelo gato ao pé da ribeira.

Saiu, limpou, disse — three PPS verbs in chained succession. This is the "story-pushing" function of the preterite: one bounded event after another, each moving the narrative a step forward.
Disse que íamos ajudar — discurso indirecto with tense backshift. The direct utterance was vamos ajudar (present + infinitive); reported under a past reporting verb disse, it becomes íamos ajudar (imperfect + infinitive). The ir + infinitivo periphrasis backshifts by shifting ir from present to imperfect.
Partimos logo — 1st plural PPS of partir (-ir verb). Partir in this context means "to leave" / "to set off".
Andámos, perguntámos, olhámos, chamámos — four 1st plural PPS of -ar verbs, ALL WITH THE ACUTE ACCENT on the second-to-last syllable. This is the -ámos distinction, one of the defining PT-PT orthographic features retained under AO90:
- PPS 1pl: andámos /ɐ̃ˈdamuʃ/ (past tense)
- Present 1pl: andamos /ɐ̃ˈdɐmuʃ/ (present tense)
- The accent is phonetically real — the stressed vowel in andámos is a true open [a], while in andamos it is the nasalised [ɐ]. The accent is not just diacritical decoration; it distinguishes two living tenses.
BR Portuguese dropped the accent in the 2009 orthographic reform (both are spelled andamos), but PT-PT kept it explicitly. This is one of the most important AO90 points for learners of European Portuguese.

Andámos por toda a aldeia à procura do gato.

We walked all over the village looking for the cat.

Perguntámos aos vizinhos se o tinham visto.

We asked the neighbours if they had seen him.

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In PT-PT, the 1st person plural preterite of -ar verbs carries an acute accent on the penultimate syllable: andámos, chegámos, voltámos, falámos, encontrámos. Without the accent, the form is ambiguous with the present. This is one of the most important spelling conventions of European Portuguese — do not drop the accent.

Verb	Present 1pl	PPS 1pl (PT-PT)
andar	andamos	andámos
falar	falamos	falámos
chegar	chegamos	chegámos
voltar	voltamos	voltámos
encontrar	encontramos	encontrámos
ficar	ficamos	ficámos
chamar	chamamos	chamámos

Imperfect for parallel backgrounds

O sol caía cada vez mais forte e eu já estava cansado. Entretanto, a Dona Olinda não parava de dizer que tinha a certeza de que alguma coisa de mau tinha acontecido.

Caía, estava, parava — three imperfects describing simultaneous ongoing states. The sun was beating, I was tired, Dona Olinda kept (lit. "didn't stop") saying. None of these are bounded events; they are the atmospheric backdrop to the search.
Cada vez mais forte — "increasingly strong". This idiomatic phrase is classic imperfect material: it describes a gradient, not a moment.
Entretanto — discourse connector meaning "meanwhile". Narrative transitions of this kind are indispensable to Portuguese storytelling: entretanto, depois, a seguir, então, de repente, finalmente, mais tarde, pouco depois.
Não parava de dizer — não parar de + infinitivo is a periphrasis for repeated/continuous action: "kept saying, wouldn't stop saying".
Tinha a certeza — imperfect of ter + a certeza, idiomatic for "was sure". Spanish speakers recognise this: tenía la seguridad.
Alguma coisa de mau tinha acontecido — mais-que-perfeito composto (tinha acontecido) again. The event of "something bad happening" is prior to Dona Olinda's speaking-moment: past-of-past.
Alguma coisa de mau — the phrase alguma coisa de + adjective is the PT-PT idiom for "something + adjective". The de is obligatory; without it, the phrase sounds wrong. Alguma coisa de bom, alguma coisa de importante, alguma coisa de estranho.

Alguma coisa de mau tinha acontecido.

Something bad had happened.

A minha avó não parava de dizer que íamos ficar bem.

My grandmother kept saying we'd be fine.

The pivotal moment: PPS for the find

De repente, o Miguel gritou: — Está ali! Em cima da figueira!

De repente — "suddenly". The classic PPS-pushing connector: whenever you see de repente, a PPS event is about to arrive.
Gritou — 3rd singular PPS of gritar. A single, punctual speech act.
Está ali! Em cima da figueira! — Miguel's direct speech jumps to the present. Direct speech within a past narrative stays in the tense the speaker used at the moment.
Em cima da figueira — em cima de
- noun is "on top of". A figueira is the fig tree; Portuguese villages are studded with them.

De repente, alguém gritou.

Suddenly, someone shouted.

Simultaneity and perceptual imperfect

O gato estava mesmo lá, enrolado num ramo alto, a olhar para nós como se não percebesse porque é que andávamos tão agitados.

Estava mesmo lá — imperfect of estar. Describes the cat's location at that moment. Mesmo here is the emphatic adverb "indeed, really": "the cat was really there, exactly there".
Enrolado num ramo alto — past participle enrolado (from enrolar) used adjectivally. Agrees masculine singular with o gato.
A olhar para nós — a + infinitivo for simultaneous ongoing action. In PT-PT, "looking at us" comes out as a olhar, not olhando. This is the most audible PT-PT/BR grammatical difference: BR Portuguese would say olhando para nós.
Como se não percebesse — como se
- imperfeito do conjuntivo. Percebesse is the imperfect subjunctive of perceber ("to understand"). Same subjunctive trigger we saw in the opening line, now in the non-past version.
Porque é que andávamos tão agitados — embedded question with the PT-PT é que filler (very characteristic of PT-PT spoken and semi-narrated language). Andávamos agitados uses andar
- adjective to mean "we were (in a state of) agitated". Andar as a copula of ongoing state: anda cansado, anda doente, anda triste.

A olhar para nós como se não percebesse.

Looking at us as if he didn't understand.

Estávamos todos cansados, mas felizes.

We were all tired but happy.

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PT-PT uses estar a + infinitivo and a + infinitivo where BR Portuguese uses the gerund. Estava a ler, estávamos a jantar, a sorrir, a chorar. This is the single most reliable way to recognise European Portuguese in a written text.

Closing: chain of PPS, then reflective imperfect

A Dona Olinda chorou de alegria, abraçou-nos a todos e insistiu em dar-nos um pacote inteiro de rebuçados. Enquanto regressávamos a casa, a minha avó pôs-me a mão no ombro e disse baixinho: — Hoje fizeste uma boa ação.

Chorou, abraçou, insistiu, pôs, disse — five PPS events in a row. Each one is a bounded act; together they form the climax of the story.
Abraçou-nos — enclitic nos after the PPS verb. Classic PT-PT enclisis. The -o/-u ending of the verb does not trigger the -los/-las/-lo/-la transformation; it only happens with -r, -s, -z endings.
Insistiu em dar-nos — insistir em + infinitivo, with enclitic nos on the infinitive. Insistir takes em in PT-PT.
Um pacote inteiro de rebuçados — rebuçados are Portuguese hard candies, wrapped individually in twisted paper. Every pastelaria sells them; every grandmother keeps a supply.
Enquanto regressávamos — enquanto + imperfeito for simultaneous ongoing action in the past. Enquanto is the standard conjunction for "while". Parallel structures: enquanto caminhávamos, enquanto esperávamos, enquanto falávamos.
Pôs-me a mão no ombro — 3rd singular PPS of pôr (irregular). Enclitic me; body part with the definite article (a mão), not a possessive.
Disse baixinho — manner adverb baixinho ("softly, quietly"). Diminutive of baixo.
Fizeste uma boa ação — 2nd singular PPS of fazer. The grandmother addresses the child informally (tu), as grandparents always do. Boa ação = "good deed" (AO90 spelling — the old acção lost its unpronounced c).

Enquanto regressávamos a casa, falávamos do gato.

While we were walking back home, we were talking about the cat.

Pôs-me a mão no ombro.

She put her hand on my shoulder.

Final reflection: present tense frames the memory

Ainda hoje me lembro do sabor daqueles rebuçados e do silêncio da tarde quando finalmente o gato saltou da árvore.

Ainda hoje me lembro — present of lembrar-se. The narrator returns to the present to close the frame started in the first sentence. Proclisis of me because ainda and adverbs of time can trigger proclisis in some contexts.
Do sabor, do silêncio — two de + o contractions.
Daqueles rebuçados — de + aqueles contraction. The demonstrative aquele (far in time and space) is perfect for evoking a distant memory.
Saltou — PPS of saltar. The final bounded event of the story, placed at the very end for emphasis.

The preterite/imperfect discrimination test

For every past-tense verb you write, run through this short checklist:

Question	If YES	If NO
Is this a single, bounded event?	PPS	Consider imperfect
Is this the background / scenery / atmosphere?	Imperfect	Consider PPS
Is this a habitual past action ("used to")?	Imperfect	Consider PPS
Age, clock time, weather, mental state?	Imperfect (always)	—
An event that interrupts ongoing action?	PPS	—
"One after another, then, and then"?	PPS chain	—
"Prior to another past event"?	Pluperfect (tinha + particípio)	—

Clock time: always imperfect

Eram cinco horas quando cheguei.

It was five o'clock when I arrived.

❌ Foram cinco horas quando cheguei.

Wrong — clock time in the past is imperfect, not PPS.

Habitual past: always imperfect

Quando era miúdo, passava os verões em Tomar.

When I was a child, I used to spend summers in Tomar.

Chain of PPS events

Entrei, cumprimentei, sentei-me e comecei a comer.

I came in, said hello, sat down, and started eating.

Discourse markers for narration

Portuguese storytellers have a ready kit of discourse connectors. Keep these at hand:

Portuguese	Function	Register
de repente	sudden turn	neutral
entretanto	meanwhile	neutral
depois / a seguir / logo a seguir	next / then	neutral
mais tarde	later	neutral
pouco depois	shortly afterwards	neutral
então	then / so	neutral/colloquial
finalmente	finally	neutral
por fim	in the end	slightly formal
enquanto	while	neutral
ao mesmo tempo	at the same time	neutral

Common mistakes

❌ Eu tive oito anos.

PPS with age — wrong. Age in the past is always imperfect.

✅ Eu tinha oito anos.

I was eight years old.

❌ Foi uma tarde de agosto.

PPS for scene-setting — sounds like an isolated, bounded moment.

✅ Era uma tarde de agosto.

It was an August afternoon.

❌ Andamos por toda a aldeia à procura do gato. (meaning past)

Missing the acute accent — andamos is present, andámos is past.

✅ Andámos por toda a aldeia à procura do gato.

We walked all over the village looking for the cat.

❌ Quando chegámos, eles já saíram.

PPS where pluperfect is needed — the leaving happened before the arriving.

✅ Quando chegámos, eles já tinham saído.

When we arrived, they had already left.

❌ Brincávamos no quintal e ouvíamos alguém.

Imperfect for the interrupting event — no, that's the punctual moment.

✅ Brincávamos no quintal quando ouvimos alguém.

We were playing in the yard when we heard someone.

❌ A olhando para nós.

Wrong structure — PT-PT uses a + infinitive, not a + gerund.

✅ A olhar para nós.

Looking at us.

Key takeaways

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Bounded event? PPS. Scenery or state? Imperfect. Run this question past every past-tense verb and you will get the tense right ninety percent of the time. For the remaining ten percent (clock time, age, mental states, "used to"), the imperfect is your default.

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PT-PT keeps the -ámos acute accent on the 1st-plural preterite of -ar verbs: andámos, chegámos, voltámos, falámos, encontrámos. The accent is obligatory and distinguishes past from present. Brazilian Portuguese dropped it in 2009; European Portuguese explicitly preserved it under AO90.

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Portuguese narration is layered. The PPS carries the story forward (entrei, vi, disse), the imperfect paints the scenery (era tarde, fazia frio, parecia cansado), and the pluperfect (tinha acontecido, já tinha saído) reaches back for what had happened before the main events. Each tense has its own job — they do not compete for the same ground.

For deeper practice on the structures in this narrative, see the preterite/imperfect overview, the narration page, the imperfect for background and descriptions, and the compound pluperfect.