Acabar de + Infinitive (Immediate Past)

English has a dedicated adverb for the idea of an action that just ended: just, as in "I just got here." Portuguese has no single adverb that plays this role cleanly. Instead, it uses a periphrasis -- a compound construction built from the verb acabar ("to finish"), the preposition de, and an infinitive: acabar de + infinitive. Acabo de chegar means "I just arrived," and the whole phrase is how European Portuguese renders the English "just."

This page covers the formation, the paradigm across tenses (present, imperfect, preterite, pluperfect), and -- importantly -- the real ambiguity between "just V-ed" and "finished V-ing" that trips up intermediate learners. Get this construction right and your Portuguese will sound strikingly more native.

The three pieces

The preposition de is obligatory. Dropping it -- acabo chegar -- is ungrammatical. The main verb is the bare infinitive, as in every infinitive-based periphrasis.

Present paradigm: I just did

The workhorse form is the present indicative of acabar. This is the construction that most cleanly maps onto English just.

Note the key feature: the reference time is now, even though the action itself is complete. The action finished moments ago -- seconds, minutes, occasionally a little longer -- and the speaker is still thinking of it as hot news.

The "acabei de" complication

This is where things get interesting. In European Portuguese, speakers commonly use the preterite (acabei de + inf) to express the same "just did" meaning. Prescriptively, the present (acabo de + inf) is the standard form for "just did." In practice, acabei de + inf is widespread, natural, and entirely acceptable in everyday speech.

Both acabo de chegar and acabei de chegar translate as "I just arrived." The nuance is subtle, and many speakers use them interchangeably. If you want to sound cautiously standard in writing, reach for acabo de + inf. If you want to sound entirely natural in speech, either is fine.

The ambiguity: "just did" vs "finished doing"

Here is the trap. The verb acabar has two lives:

1. As the auxiliary in the periphrasis acabar de + inf, meaning "to have just done."
2. As a standalone verb meaning "to finish," which also takes de + infinitive to express what was finished.

In context, these two readings can blur -- especially with the preterite.

• Periphrastic reading: acabei de chegar = "I just arrived" (the "just V-ed" construction).
• Lexical reading: acabei de chegar = "I finished arriving" -- literally, the arriving process is complete.

In the vast majority of contexts, only the periphrastic reading makes sense. "Arriving" is not a process that has a meaningful finishing point; you either are there or you aren't. So acabei de chegar is almost always understood as "I just arrived."

But with verbs that denote extended processes -- ler um livro, pintar a casa, escrever uma carta -- the lexical reading can be foregrounded.

In practice, context almost always resolves the reading. If in doubt, native speakers disambiguate with adverbs: acabei agora mesmo de ler ("I've just this moment read" -- periphrastic) vs acabei finalmente de pintar ("I've finally finished painting" -- lexical).

Imperfect paradigm: I had just done

With acabar in the imperfect, the periphrasis shifts to the past: "I had just V-ed." This is the typical scene-setter for "when X happened, I had just Y-ed."

Notice the accent on acabávamos -- the á is mandatory (stressed vowel in a proparoxytone).

Pluperfect paradigms: the more literary past

Portuguese has two pluperfect constructions, and acabar de + inf can take either. The synthetic pluperfect (acabara de + inf) is highly literary; the compound pluperfect (tinha acabado de + inf or havia acabado de + inf) is the everyday form.

Compound pluperfect (everyday)

Synthetic pluperfect (literary)

The synthetic form acabara is rare in speech but appears in literary narrative.

For most learners, the compound pluperfect is the form to produce; the synthetic pluperfect is only for reading.

Future, conditional, subjunctive

The periphrasis is fully productive. Though less common than the present and imperfect forms, acabar de + inf can appear in any tense.

• Future: acabarei de + inf / vou acabar de + inf -- "I will have just V-ed / I'll finish V-ing."
• Conditional: acabaria de + inf -- "I would have just V-ed / I would finish V-ing."
• Subjunctive: que acabe de + inf -- "that I may have just V-ed / that I may finish V-ing."

In these tenses the "finish V-ing" reading is usually the more natural one, because the "just V-ed" sense is intrinsically tied to a recent-past perspective.

Beware: acabar por + infinitive is a completely different construction

Portuguese has a second periphrasis with acabar that looks similar but means something entirely different. Swap de for por and the meaning flips: acabar por + infinitive means "to end up doing" — the final outcome after some process, twist, or hesitation.

The two are not interchangeable — swapping de for por changes the meaning from "a moment ago" to "eventually, after all."

Compare directly:

Contrast with English "just"

English uses the adverb just with a present-perfect verb for this meaning: I have just arrived. Portuguese uses a periphrasis: acabo de chegar (or acabei de chegar). The mappings are:

Crucially, Portuguese does not use the adverb justamente or apenas to translate "just" in this sense. Apenas means "only"; justamente means "precisely" or "rightly." Neither conveys the temporal "a moment ago" reading.

Contrast with other periphrases

Acabar de + inf sits on the opposite end of the aspectual spectrum from ir + inf (near future) and estar a + inf (ongoing present). The three together cover the core of Portuguese aspectual expression.

Native speakers use all three constantly and switch between them as the perspective shifts.

Object pronouns

In affirmative sentences with no proclisis trigger, the object pronoun attaches to the infinitive.

Notice the contraction: ver + a becomes vê-la, with the -r dropping and the pronoun adding l-.

With a proclisis trigger, the pronoun jumps before acabar.

Common mistakes

Without de, the construction falls apart. Remember: acabar + de + infinitive.

There is no adverb that translates English just in this temporal sense. Use the periphrasis.

For "had just V-ed," put acabar in the compound pluperfect: tinha acabado de + inf.

Like every infinitive-based periphrasis, the main verb stays in its bare infinitive form.

English speakers sometimes add só thinking it reinforces the "just." It doesn't -- the periphrasis already carries the meaning.

Mixing up acabar de (immediate past, "just V-ed") with acabar por (final outcome, "ended up V-ing") is one of the most frequent errors. The one-letter difference carries the entire meaning.

Key takeaways

• Form: conjugated acabar
  • de
    • bare infinitive. The de is mandatory.
• Present: acabo / acabas / acaba / acabamos / acabam de
  • inf. Means "I just V-ed." Reference time is now.
• Preterite: acabei / acabaste / acabou / acabámos / acabaram de
  • inf. Also means "I just V-ed" in colloquial EP. Slightly more casual than the present.
• Imperfect: acabava de
  • inf. Means "I had just V-ed." Typical for scene-setting in narrative.
• Compound pluperfect: tinha acabado de
  • inf. The everyday "had just V-ed."
• Ambiguity: acabar de + inf can also mean "to finish V-ing" (the lexical reading). Context resolves almost all cases; the periphrastic "just V-ed" is the overwhelming default.
• Acabar de vs acabar por: these are different constructions. Acabei de falar = "I just talked"; acabei por falar = "I ended up talking." One-letter swap, completely different meaning.
• English match: English uses just with a present perfect; Portuguese uses acabar de + inf. There is no single-word Portuguese adverb for this meaning.
• Pronouns: enclitic on the infinitive (acabo de vê-la); proclitic to acabar with a trigger (não a acabo de perceber).