European Portuguese has a whole family of compound tenses — tenses built from a form of the auxiliary ter plus a past participle. They appear in the indicative, in the subjunctive, in the infinitive, and even in the gerund. Once you know the pattern, you unlock a surprisingly large slice of the verb system: ten distinct tenses, all generated by the same simple recipe. This page is the map. It inventories every compound tense in modern EP, shows how each is built, and gives a short explanation plus an example for each one. The dedicated pages that follow drill into the individual tenses.
The recipe
Every Portuguese compound tense follows one formula:
Some form of ter + past participle of the main verb
The auxiliary ter carries all the grammatical information: person, number, tense, and mood. The past participle is a single invariable form — it never agrees with anything. Learn the participle of a verb once, and you can plug it into any of the ten compound tenses below.
Tenho falado com ele ultimamente.
I have been talking to him lately. (present indicative of ter + falado)
Tínhamos comido quando chegaste.
We had eaten when you arrived. (imperfect indicative of ter + comido)
Se tivessem estudado, teriam passado.
If they had studied, they would have passed. (imperfect subj. of ter + estudado; conditional of ter + passado)
The participles (falado, comido, estudado, passado) stay exactly the same across all three sentences. Only the form of ter changes.
The past participle, in one table
Regular past participles are built by removing the infinitive ending and adding -ado (for -ar verbs) or -ido (for -er and -ir verbs).
| Infinitive | Past participle | Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| falar | falado | spoken |
| comer | comido | eaten |
| partir | partido | left / departed |
A handful of high-frequency verbs have irregular participles that you must memorize separately:
| Infinitive | Irregular participle | Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| fazer | feito | done / made |
| dizer | dito | said |
| ver | visto | seen |
| pôr | posto | put |
| vir | vindo | come |
| abrir | aberto | opened |
| escrever | escrito | written |
| cobrir | coberto | covered |
A few verbs even have two participles — one regular (used with ter / haver) and one irregular (used with ser / estar in the passive). Ganhar and gastar, for example, both take ganho / gasto across the board in modern EP, displacing the old regular ganhado / gastado almost entirely. For the full story on double participles, see the formation page of the present perfect.
The ten compound tenses
Modern EP uses compound forms in three different grammatical systems: the indicative, the subjunctive, and the non-finite forms (infinitive and gerund). The table below is the complete inventory.
Indicative compound tenses
| Tense name (Portuguese) | Formula | Example | Core meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| pretérito perfeito composto | present of ter + pp | tenho falado | repeated / ongoing over recent time |
| pretérito mais-que-perfeito composto | imperfect of ter + pp | tinha falado | past before another past |
| futuro perfeito composto | future of ter + pp | terei falado | completed before a future point |
| condicional composto | conditional of ter + pp | teria falado | "would have done" |
Subjunctive compound tenses
| Tense name (Portuguese) | Formula | Example | Core meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| pretérito perfeito composto do conjuntivo | present subj. of ter + pp | tenha falado | past event in present-framed irrealis |
| pretérito mais-que-perfeito composto do conjuntivo | imperfect subj. of ter + pp | tivesse falado | past event in past-framed irrealis |
| futuro perfeito composto do conjuntivo | future subj. of ter + pp | tiver falado | completed future in irrealis future clause |
Non-finite compound forms
| Name | Formula | Example | Core meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| infinitivo composto | ter (infinitive) + pp | ter falado | "to have spoken" (anterior infinitive) |
| infinitivo pessoal composto | personal infinitive of ter + pp | termos falado | "for us to have spoken" — person-marked |
| gerúndio composto | gerund of ter + pp | tendo falado | "having spoken" (anterior gerund) |
Ten tenses, one recipe. Every one of them is just ter (in some form) plus a past participle. The ten tenses below each get a short explanation and example.
Indicative compound tenses in detail
1. Pretérito perfeito composto — tenho falado
Built from the present indicative of ter plus a past participle. Despite its look-alike status with English "have spoken" and Spanish he hablado, this tense in EP does not mean a single completed event. It means a repeated or ongoing action over a recent stretch of time, continuing up to now.
Tenho estudado muito ultimamente.
I have been studying a lot lately.
O João tem chegado sempre atrasado esta semana.
João has been arriving late all week.
See the present perfect compound page for the full treatment.
2. Pretérito mais-que-perfeito composto — tinha falado
Built from the imperfect indicative of ter plus a past participle. This is the everyday "had done" tense — an action that was completed before another past event. It is the normal, colloquial way to express past-of-past in modern EP (a literary alternative, falara, exists but is rare in speech).
Quando cheguei, ela já tinha saído.
When I arrived, she had already left.
Disseram que já tinham comido.
They said they had already eaten.
See the compound pluperfect page.
3. Futuro perfeito composto — terei falado
Built from the simple future of ter plus a past participle. Two main uses: (1) an action that will have been completed by some future point, and (2) a conjecture or guess about a past event — "he must have done it."
Quando chegares, já terei acabado o jantar.
By the time you arrive, I will have already finished dinner.
Terão partido sem dizer nada.
They must have left without saying anything.
See the future perfect page.
4. Condicional composto — teria falado
Built from the conditional of ter plus a past participle. This is the Portuguese "would have done." It appears in the main clause of past counterfactual conditionals and anywhere you express a hypothetical past outcome.
Se tivesses avisado, teria ido contigo.
If you had told me, I would have gone with you.
In colloquial EP, the pluperfect indicative (tinha ido) often replaces the conditional perfect in this role — see the conditional overview.
Subjunctive compound tenses in detail
5. Pretérito perfeito composto do conjuntivo — tenha falado
Built from the present subjunctive of ter plus a past participle. It expresses a past event inside a present-framed irrealis context — doubt, emotion, wish, impersonal judgment — when the subordinate event happened before the main-clause moment of speech.
É pena que não tenhas vindo à festa.
It's a shame you didn't come to the party.
Duvido que eles já tenham chegado.
I doubt they have already arrived.
The trigger (é pena, duvido) is in the present. The subordinate event is past. The compound present subjunctive splits the difference.
6. Pretérito mais-que-perfeito composto do conjuntivo — tivesse falado
Built from the imperfect subjunctive of ter plus a past participle. This is the big counterfactual-past tense: "if I had known", "I wish you had come", "he doubted they had arrived." It is extremely common in both writing and speech.
Se tivesses chegado mais cedo, terias visto o espectáculo.
If you had arrived earlier, you would have seen the show.
Oxalá nunca tivesse dito aquilo.
I wish I had never said that.
See the pluperfect subjunctive overview for the full treatment.
7. Futuro perfeito composto do conjuntivo — tiver falado
Built from the future subjunctive of ter plus a past participle. Used in subordinate clauses that project a completed future event — especially after quando, assim que, logo que, se.
Quando tiveres acabado, avisa-me.
When you've finished, let me know.
Se tivermos chegado antes das oito, jantamos em casa.
If we've arrived before eight, we'll have dinner at home.
This tense feels exotic to English speakers because English simply uses the present perfect ("when you've finished") in the same slot — but in Portuguese it must be the future subjunctive of ter. Only EP and a handful of other languages still use a fully alive future subjunctive this way.
Non-finite compound forms
8. Infinitivo composto — ter falado
The plain infinitive of ter plus a past participle. It means "to have done" — an anterior infinitive. Used after prepositions and verbs of perception / belief when the embedded action is prior to the main action.
Lamento ter dito aquilo.
I regret having said that.
Ele afirma ter visto o acidente.
He claims to have seen the accident.
Depois de ter comido, saímos para passear.
After eating (literally 'after having eaten'), we went out for a walk.
9. Infinitivo pessoal composto — termos falado
The personal infinitive of ter (which carries person marking) plus a past participle. This is a distinctively Portuguese construction — no other major Romance language has anything quite like it. The form of ter changes with the subject.
| Person | Personal infinitive of ter | Example with falado |
|---|---|---|
| eu | ter | ter falado |
| tu | teres | teres falado |
| ele / ela / você | ter | ter falado |
| nós | termos | termos falado |
| eles / elas / vocês | terem | terem falado |
Apesar de termos perdido o comboio, chegámos a tempo.
Despite our having missed the train, we arrived on time.
É estranho os pais não terem dito nada.
It's strange that the parents didn't say anything.
The personal infinitive lets you embed a clause with its own subject without a conjunction, and the compound version lets that clause be prior to the main verb. See the personal infinitive overview for the full treatment of this highly Portuguese structure.
10. Gerúndio composto — tendo falado
The gerund of ter plus a past participle. It means "having done" — an anterior adverbial form. Less common than the other compounds, but perfectly alive in formal writing and careful speech.
Tendo terminado o trabalho, fui para casa.
Having finished the work, I went home.
Tendo visto o filme duas vezes, já sei o final.
Having seen the film twice, I already know the ending.
The simple gerund fazendo means "doing / while doing"; the compound tendo feito means "having done." The compound form anchors one event before another.
The symmetry in one diagram
Think of the compound system as each basic tense of ter being slotted into the same frame:
| Form of ter | Compound tense it produces |
|---|---|
| tenho (pres. ind.) | pretérito perfeito composto |
| tinha (imp. ind.) | pret. mais-que-perfeito composto |
| terei (future) | futuro perfeito composto |
| teria (conditional) | condicional composto |
| tenha (pres. subj.) | pret. perfeito composto do conjuntivo |
| tivesse (imp. subj.) | pret. mais-que-perfeito do conjuntivo |
| tiver (fut. subj.) | futuro perfeito composto do conjuntivo |
| ter (infinitive) | infinitivo composto |
| termos etc. (personal inf.) | infinitivo pessoal composto |
| tendo (gerund) | gerúndio composto |
The practical consequence: once you know the conjugation of ter cold, and once you know the past participle of a verb, you automatically have access to all ten compound forms of that verb. That is a huge payoff for learning one auxiliary well.
Register notes
- All ten compound tenses above are standard modern EP. None is archaic.
- The compound pluperfect (tinha falado) has largely replaced the synthetic pluperfect (falara) in everyday use; the synthetic form survives in literary register — see Simple vs Compound Pluperfect.
- Haver as an auxiliary (houvera falado, houvesse falado) is literary and old-fashioned in compound tenses. Modern EP uses ter across the board.
- The future perfect for conjecture (terão partido = "they must have left") is more formal than the colloquial deve ter + pp; both coexist.
Common Mistakes
❌ Tenho falados com ele.
Incorrect — the past participle does not agree with ter's subject. Always invariable.
✅ Tenho falado com ele.
I have been talking to him.
❌ Hei feito o trabalho.
Incorrect — modern EP uses ter, not haver, as the auxiliary.
✅ Fiz o trabalho. / Tenho feito o trabalho.
I did the work (simple preterite for a single event) / I have been doing the work (iterative).
❌ Quando tu acabares, vamos embora — já terei cansado.
Incorrect — the compound tense still needs ter + pp. Write: já estarei cansado (present of estar + adjective) or já terei acabado (if anterior completion is meant).
✅ Quando acabares, já eu terei saído.
By the time you finish, I'll already have left.
❌ Se tinha sabido, teria ligado.
Incorrect — 'tinha sabido' is indicative; a counterfactual se-clause requires the subjunctive auxiliary tivesse.
✅ Se tivesse sabido, teria ligado.
If I had known, I would have called.
❌ Agradeço-vos por ter vindo.
Questionable — if the subject is 'vós / vocês', use the personal infinitive terem.
✅ Agradeço-vos por terem vindo.
Thank you for coming.
Key Takeaways
- Compound tenses are all built with a form of ter plus a past participle. Ten compound tenses share the same recipe.
- Four in the indicative (tenho / tinha / terei / teria falado), three in the subjunctive (tenha / tivesse / tiver falado), three non-finite (ter / termos / tendo falado).
- The past participle is invariable — it never agrees when used with ter.
- Modern EP uses ter, not haver, as the auxiliary; haver is literary/archaic in this role.
- Knowing the conjugation of ter across every tense and mood unlocks compound forms for every verb in the language. It is one of the highest-leverage facts in Portuguese.
From here, the dedicated pages drill into each compound tense: ter vs haver, the present perfect compound, the compound pluperfect, and the future perfect.
Related Topics
- Ter vs Haver as AuxiliaryB1 — Why modern European Portuguese uses ter instead of haver in compound tenses, with the register, set expressions, and 'haver de + infinitive' left behind.
- Pretérito Perfeito Composto (Present Perfect Compound)B1 — Tenho feito — the deep dive on European Portuguese's iterative present perfect, the tense that only means 'has been doing' over a recent ongoing period.
- Pretérito Mais-que-Perfeito Composto (Compound Pluperfect)B1 — Tinha feito — the modern Portuguese pluperfect, used for past-before-past narration in both speech and writing, alongside the literary synthetic form falara.
- Futuro Perfeito Composto (Future Perfect)B2 — Terei feito — the Portuguese future perfect, used both for actions completed before a future moment and, very idiomatically, for conjecture about the past.
- Pretérito Perfeito Composto OverviewB1 — The Portuguese present perfect and why it's different from English or Spanish
- Mais-que-Perfeito OverviewB1 — Expressing actions completed before another past action -- the two Portuguese pluperfects at a glance
- Pluperfect Subjunctive OverviewB2 — The mais-que-perfeito do conjuntivo (tivesse + past participle) is how European Portuguese talks about past events inside irrealis contexts — counterfactual regrets, sequence-of-tenses after a past main verb, and past wishes.
- Personal Infinitive: OverviewB1 — The infinitivo pessoal — an infinitive that conjugates for person and number — is Portuguese's signature grammatical feature, and one of the things that makes the language feel unlike the rest of Romance.