Imperfect for Habitual Past Actions | Portuguese (Portugal) Grammar

The imperfect is the Portuguese tense for talking about what life used to be like. If you want to describe a past habit, a repeated routine, or the way things generally were, you reach for the imperfect -- no auxiliary verb, no special construction. The verb form alone carries the meaning of "used to" or "would (regularly)."

The imperfect for "used to"

In English, expressing a past habit requires the phrase "used to" or sometimes "would." In Portuguese, the pretérito imperfeito does this on its own. There is no equivalent of "used to" that you need to add -- the imperfect ending is enough.

Jogava futebol.

I used to play football.

O meu pai trabalhava numa oficina.

My father used to work in a garage.

Compare this with the present tense, where habitual actions are expressed the same way -- just with present forms. The imperfect shifts that habit into the past.

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There is no Portuguese equivalent of the English auxiliary "used to." Where English needs two words (used to play), Portuguese needs only the imperfect form (jogava). If you catch yourself trying to translate "used to" word for word, stop -- just use the imperfect.

Childhood memories

Talking about childhood is one of the most natural contexts for the habitual imperfect. Nearly every sentence about what you did as a child calls for this tense.

Quando era criança, brincava na rua com os amigos.

When I was a child, I used to play in the street with my friends.

Íamos à praia todos os verões.

We used to go to the beach every summer.

A minha avó fazia bolos todos os domingos.

My grandmother used to make cakes every Sunday.

Notice that these sentences contain no word meaning "used to." The imperfect forms -- brincava, íamos, fazia -- carry that meaning entirely on their own. The time expression quando era criança simply sets the scene.

Past routines and schedules

The habitual imperfect is equally at home describing adult routines that no longer apply -- a former job, a previous home, or how your days used to unfold.

Levantava-me às seis, tomava o pequeno-almoço e ia para o trabalho.

I used to get up at six, have breakfast, and go to work.

Almoçávamos sempre no mesmo restaurante.

We always used to have lunch at the same restaurant.

When you chain several imperfect verbs together like this, you paint a picture of an entire routine -- not a single event, but the way things habitually unfolded.

Time expressions that trigger the habitual imperfect

Certain words and phrases are strong signals that the imperfect is needed. They all point to repetition, frequency, or an undefined stretch of past time.

Frequency words

Português	English
sempre	always
nunca	never
muitas vezes	often
às vezes	sometimes
normalmente	normally
geralmente	generally
habitualmente	habitually

Recurring time expressions

Português	English
todos os dias	every day
todas as semanas	every week
aos sábados	on Saturdays
antigamente	in the old days
naquela época	at that time
nessa altura	at that point
dantes	before / in the past

When you see any of these expressions paired with a past context, the imperfect is almost always the right choice. The Imperfect Overview has more on the full range of situations where this tense appears.

Costumar + infinitive alternative

Portuguese has a verb -- costumar -- that explicitly means "to be in the habit of." In the imperfect, costumava + infinitive is another way to express "used to":

Costumava jogar futebol.

I used to play football.

Both jogava futebol and costumava jogar futebol are correct and natural. The simple imperfect is more common in everyday speech; costumar adds a slightly more explicit emphasis on the habitual nature of the action. You do not need both -- pick one or the other.

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Do not overuse costumar. Native speakers reach for the simple imperfect far more often. Reserve costumava + infinitive for moments when you want to stress the regularity of the habit, or when the context might otherwise be ambiguous.

Imperfect for "would" (habitual)

In English, "would" can describe a past habit: Every Sunday, we would go to the beach. This is not the conditional -- it is a habitual "would." Portuguese handles this with the imperfect, just as it handles "used to."

Todos os domingos, íamos à praia.

Every Sunday, we would go to the beach.

À noite, a minha mãe lia-nos uma história.

In the evening, my mother would read us a story.

There is no separate tense or construction for this use. The imperfect covers both "used to" and habitual "would."

Contrasting past and present

A powerful way to use the habitual imperfect is to contrast how things were with how they are now. The imperfect describes the old habit; the present tense describes the current reality.

Antes vivia no campo, agora vivo na cidade.

I used to live in the country, now I live in the city.

Dantes não gostava de legumes, agora adoro.

I used to not like vegetables, now I love them.

Words like antes (before), dantes (in the past), and antigamente (in the old days) naturally introduce the imperfect half of the contrast, while agora (now) or hoje em dia (nowadays) signals the shift to the present tense.

Past habit (imperfect)	Current reality (present)
Bebia muito café.	Agora só bebo chá.
Fumava.	Já não fumo.
Morava no Porto.	Agora moro em Coimbra.
Não fazia exercício.	Agora corro todos os dias.

This before-and-after pattern is one of the most useful frameworks for practising the imperfect. It forces you to switch between two tenses in a single sentence, which is exactly what natural Portuguese does constantly.

For the conjugation patterns behind these forms, see -ar verbs and the Imperfect Overview. For a broader comparison of the imperfect with the preterite, see Preterite vs Imperfect.