Forming the Pretérito Perfeito Composto

The pretérito perfeito composto is a compound past tense -- built from two parts, never one. It looks almost identical to the English present perfect ("I have spoken") or the Spanish one (he hablado), but its meaning is genuinely different in European Portuguese. This page focuses purely on the formation -- how to build the tense mechanically. For meaning and usage, see the dedicated pages linked at the end.

The formula

The formula is fixed and simple:

ter (present) + past participle

Portuguese uses the auxiliary ter, not haver. This is a notable difference from Spanish (which uses haber) and from older literary Portuguese (where haver was also possible). In modern spoken and written European Portuguese, ter is the standard auxiliary and haver as an auxiliary survives only in highly formal or literary registers.

The present of ter

You already need ter for possession (Tenho um carro -- "I have a car"), but as an auxiliary in this compound it keeps exactly the same forms:

Notice the circumflex on têm -- this is the plural form, and the accent is mandatory to distinguish it from the singular tem. Without the hat, you've written the wrong form.

Building a complete compound

To build the full pretérito perfeito composto, combine one of those five auxiliary forms with the past participle. Let's walk through the three regular verb classes.

-ar verbs: falar → falado

The past participle for regular -ar verbs is formed by replacing -ar with -ado. So falar → falado, cantar → cantado, trabalhar → trabalhado.

-er verbs: comer → comido

Regular -er verbs take -ido: comer → comido, beber → bebido, correr → corrido.

-ir verbs: partir → partido

Regular -ir verbs also take -ido: partir → partido, dormir → dormido, decidir → decidido. So -er and -ir share an identical participle ending, just like they share preterite endings.

Past participle formation: the short summary

This works for the vast majority of Portuguese verbs. See past participle formation for the full details and small wrinkles (like pôr → posto).

The participle stays invariable

This is a critical rule, and it's where many learners from Romance-language backgrounds trip up. In the compound tense with ter, the participle does not agree with the subject. It stays in its default masculine singular form -- falado, comido, partido -- regardless of whether the subject is feminine, plural, or both.

Not falada, even though Maria is feminine.

Not comidos, even though miúdos is masculine plural.

Vindo stays invariable even though as minhas primas is feminine plural.

Irregular participles

Some common verbs have irregular past participles that you simply need to memorize. Here are the most important ones:

A handful of verbs have two participles -- a regular one (for compound tenses with ter) and an irregular one (for passive/resultative constructions with ser/estar). For example, matar uses matado with ter but morto with ser. See irregular participles for the full treatment.

Nothing slips between ter and the participle

Like English "have been" + participle, Portuguese treats ter + participle as a tight unit. Object pronouns, adverbs, and negation sit outside the unit, not inside it.

Note: nunca goes before the unit, triggering proclisis. You do not say tenho nunca tido.

Object pronouns go before ter (proclisis) when triggered by a word like já, não, nunca, or another trigger. In affirmative, neutral clauses, the object pronoun can also attach after ter with a hyphen (enclisis): Tenho-te dito que não gosto disso -- same meaning, slightly different placement rules.

Questions and negation

Questions are formed just by intonation and question marks; no subject-verb inversion is required:

Negation: put não (or another negative word) before the entire unit:

Why Portuguese uses ter, not haver

A historical note: Old Portuguese used haver as the compound auxiliary, like Spanish still does. Over centuries, ter (originally meaning "to hold, to possess") pushed haver out of everyday auxiliary use. Today, ter is the default in every register. Haver as an auxiliary survives in:

• Highly formal written Portuguese (hei de ir -- "I shall go," literary/archaic feel)
• Set expressions (haver de
  • infinitive, a future-ish construction)

For everyday compound tenses, always use ter.

A fully worked paradigm

Here is a full set of example sentences at all five persons, using different verbs, to give you a feel for the complete paradigm:

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

• Formula: ter (present) + past participle. Always ter, never haver, in modern EP.
• Auxiliary: tenho, tens, tem, temos, têm (mind the circumflex on têm).
• Regular participles: -ar → -ado, -er → -ido, -ir → -ido.
• Key irregular participles to memorize: feito, dito, visto, posto, aberto, escrito, vindo, coberto, ganho, gasto, pago.
• The participle is invariable in compound tenses with ter -- no gender or number agreement.
• Nothing goes between ter and the participle; adverbs and pronouns live outside the unit.
• This tense does not mean the English present perfect. See the meaning pages before using it.

Continue to repeated/ongoing usage for what this tense actually means, and vs Spanish present perfect for a side-by-side comparison if you know Spanish.