Common Uses of the Preterite | Portuguese (Portugal) Grammar

You know the conjugation tables. Now it is time to see when and why you reach for the preterite. This page pulls together the main situations that call for the pretérito perfeito simples -- narrating what happened, chaining events into a timeline, pinning actions to specific moments, and using the impersonal houve. Each use has the same underlying logic: the action is done.

Narrating completed events

The preterite is the tense that tells what happened. Every time you report a finished action -- something that started and ended in the past -- you use the preterite. It moves the story forward.

Acordei, tomei banho, vesti-me e saí de casa.

I woke up, showered, got dressed, and left the house.

Each verb in that sentence is a separate completed action. The preterite treats each one as a point on a timeline: done, then the next, then the next.

Sequences of events

The preterite is the narration tense. When you chain preterites together, you create a timeline -- each action follows the previous one in order.

Cheguei ao restaurante, sentei-me e pedi um café.

I arrived at the restaurant, sat down, and ordered a coffee.

Ela abriu a porta, olhou para mim e sorriu.

She opened the door, looked at me, and smiled.

Notice that the order of the verbs matches the order of events. If you reverse them, the story changes. This is how the preterite differs from the imperfect, which sets the background scene but does not advance the action.

Specific past moments

The preterite pairs naturally with time expressions that point to a definite, bounded moment. If you can answer when exactly?, the preterite is almost certainly correct.

Ontem fui ao cinema.

Yesterday I went to the cinema.

Em 2020, mudámo-nos para o Porto.

In 2020, we moved to Porto.

Na segunda-feira, tive uma reunião importante.

On Monday, I had an important meeting.

Common time expressions with the preterite

These words and phrases are strong signals that the preterite is needed:

Portuguese	English	Type
ontem	yesterday	specific day
anteontem	the day before yesterday	specific day
na semana passada	last week	bounded period
no mês passado	last month	bounded period
no ano passado	last year	bounded period
há dois dias	two days ago	distance from now
em + year (em 2015)	in + year	specific year
de repente	suddenly	punctual event
nesse momento	at that moment	punctual event
logo a seguir	right afterwards	sequence marker

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The expression há + time period means "ago" when paired with the preterite: Há dois dias, liguei-lhe (Two days ago, I called him). Do not confuse this with present-tense há meaning "there is/are" -- context and the tense of the main verb make the difference clear.

Houve -- impersonal haver in the past

The verb haver in its existential meaning ("there is/are") has a special preterite form: houve. It works just like present-tense há, but for completed past situations.

Houve um acidente na autoestrada.

There was an accident on the highway.

Não houve tempo para tudo.

There wasn't time for everything.

Tense	Form	Example	Meaning
Present	há	Há um problema.	There is a problem.
Preterite	houve	Houve um problema.	There was a problem.

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Houve is always singular, even when the noun that follows is plural. Say Houve muitas pessoas na festa (there were many people at the party), never ~~houveram muitas pessoas~~. This is the same rule as present-tense há -- the impersonal form of haver does not agree with what comes after it.

The preterite vs present perfect in EP

This distinction trips up learners coming from other languages. In European Portuguese, the present perfect (tenho feito, tenho falado) does not describe single completed events -- it expresses repeated or ongoing situations stretching up to now. For any single finished action in the past, EP always uses the preterite.

Meaning	Correct (EP)	Incorrect
I did the work.	Fiz o trabalho.	~~Tenho feito o trabalho.~~
She spoke to the boss.	Ela falou com o chefe.	~~Ela tem falado com o chefe.~~
We arrived yesterday.	Chegámos ontem.	~~Temos chegado ontem.~~

For the full picture, see Present Perfect.

The preterite in questions

Asking about past events works like any other Portuguese question -- use the preterite form and, in speech, raise your intonation at the end. No auxiliary verb is needed.

Foste ao médico?

Did you go to the doctor?

O que fizeste no fim de semana?

What did you do at the weekend?

Gostaste do filme?

Did you like the film?

Notice the pattern: Portuguese uses one word where English needs three (did you go → foste). The preterite conjugation alone carries the past meaning, the subject, and the question.

Defined durations

A second core use is describing how long something went on, when that duration is presented as a finished, bounded stretch. If the activity had a clear start and end and you are now reporting it as a closed chunk, the preterite is the right choice -- even if the activity itself felt "continuous" in English.

Estudei durante duas horas antes do exame.

I studied for two hours before the exam.

Vivemos em Lisboa sete anos e depois mudámos para Braga.

We lived in Lisbon for seven years and then moved to Braga.

A reunião durou o dia inteiro.

The meeting lasted the entire day.

The giveaway is usually a quantified period (duas horas, sete anos, o dia inteiro) combined with the fact that the period is over. Contrast with the imperfect, which would describe an open-ended ongoing state without a closing boundary.

The sudden break into background

One of the most characteristic Portuguese patterns weaves the two past tenses together: the imperfect paints the ongoing scene, and the preterite delivers the event that breaks into it. When a punctual action crashes into a stretched-out backdrop, the preterite is the one that announces the news.

Estava a ler quando alguém bateu à porta.

I was reading when someone knocked at the door.

Ela dormia tranquilamente quando o telefone tocou.

She was sleeping peacefully when the phone rang.

Caminhávamos pela praia e, de repente, começou a chover.

We were walking along the beach and, suddenly, it started to rain.

In each pair, the imperfect verb (estava a ler, dormia, caminhávamos) is the open window onto what was already happening. The preterite verb (bateu, tocou, começou) is the shutter click -- the moment something new happened. Drop the preterite and nothing advances; drop the imperfect and the scene has no texture. For more, see Preterite vs Imperfect.

Common mistakes

❌ Na semana passada estava doente.

Incorrect if you mean 'I was sick last week' as a closed episode -- the boundary 'na semana passada' calls for the preterite.

✅ Na semana passada estive doente.

Last week I was sick (and am better now).

❌ Ontem tenho ido ao cinema.

Incorrect -- EP never uses the present perfect for a single completed past event with a time anchor like 'ontem'.

✅ Ontem fui ao cinema.

Yesterday I went to the cinema.

❌ Houveram muitas pessoas na festa.

Incorrect -- houve is impersonal and stays singular regardless of what follows.

✅ Houve muitas pessoas na festa.

There were many people at the party.

❌ Estudei durante duas horas e ainda estudo.

Contradictory -- the preterite closes the session. If you are still studying, the present continues the action.

✅ Estou a estudar há duas horas.

I have been studying for two hours (and still am).

Putting it all together

When you narrate in Portuguese, the preterite does the heavy lifting. It reports what happened, advances the timeline, anchors events to specific moments, and closes off bounded periods. The imperfect fills in the background -- what was going on, what things looked like, how people felt -- but the preterite is what pushes the story forward and delivers the events that break into the scene. For a detailed comparison, see Preterite vs Imperfect.