The verb ter has a second life in European Portuguese that has almost nothing to do with possession. It is the auxiliary verb that builds every single compound tense in the language — ten tenses in all, spread across the indicative, the subjunctive, the infinitive, and the gerund. Where Spanish uses haber (he hablado) and French uses avoir (j'ai parlé), Portuguese uses ter. This page focuses narrowly on what ter looks like in each tense when it is doing auxiliary duty, and on the single most important rule that governs the construction: the past participle is invariable.
For the comparative story of ter vs haver as auxiliaries — why Portuguese abandoned haver and how the two verbs relate — see Ter vs Haver as Auxiliary. This page is the companion piece: the functional conjugation guide for ter itself.
Why ter, not haver
Every Romance language inherited Latin habēre ("to have") as the auxiliary for compound tenses. Spanish kept it (haber). French kept it (avoir). Italian kept it (avere). Portuguese — uniquely — swapped it out. A different verb, ter (from Latin tenēre, "to hold"), took over the auxiliary job starting around the fifteenth century and had completed the takeover by the modern period. Today, haver as an auxiliary survives only in literary and archaic prose. For normal, everyday, spoken-and-written Portuguese, the auxiliary is ter.
The recipe
Every compound tense in Portuguese 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 main verb contributes only its past participle, which is a single frozen form that never agrees with anything. Learn the participle of a verb once (falado, comido, partido, escrito, feito, dito, posto, visto, aberto) and you can plug it into all ten compound tenses below.
Tenho trabalhado muito esta semana.
I've been working a lot this week.
Tínhamos comido quando chegaste.
We had eaten by the time you arrived.
Eles terão partido antes das nove.
They will have left before nine.
The ter paradigm across every compound tense
Ter must be conjugated into the right tense and mood to carry the grammatical load. Here is the full paradigm for the eu form, for reference — the other persons follow standard ter conjugation.
| Compound tense | Ter (eu form) | Name in English | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Present perfect compound | tenho | present perfect ("have done") | tenho falado |
| Pluperfect compound | tinha | past perfect ("had done") | tinha falado |
| Future perfect | terei | future perfect ("will have done") | terei falado |
| Conditional perfect | teria | conditional perfect ("would have done") | teria falado |
| Present perfect subjunctive | tenha | subj. present perfect ("have done") | tenha falado |
| Pluperfect subjunctive | tivesse | subj. pluperfect ("had done") | tivesse falado |
| Future perfect subjunctive | tiver | future subj. perfect ("will have done") | tiver falado |
| Compound infinitive | ter | perfect infinitive ("to have done") | ter falado |
| Compound personal infinitive | ter (+ ending) | personal perfect infinitive | teres falado, termos falado… |
| Compound gerund | tendo | perfect gerund ("having done") | tendo falado |
Ten compound tenses, one verb. Each one uses the form of ter that carries the right time and mood, and each one combines it with the invariable past participle.
Present perfect compound
Tenho pensado muito no que disseste no outro dia.
I've been thinking a lot about what you said the other day.
Ela tem estudado para os exames todas as tardes.
She's been studying for exams every afternoon.
In EP, this tense carries a specifically iterative meaning — an action repeated or sustained over a period leading up to now. It is not the English "have done" for a completed past action (that's the simple preterite: falei).
Pluperfect compound
Quando o médico chegou, o paciente já tinha desmaiado.
When the doctor arrived, the patient had already fainted.
The most common form of the pluperfect in spoken EP. The simple pluperfect (falara, comera) exists too, but it is literary — see Simple Pluperfect.
Future perfect
Até ao fim do mês, já terei acabado o projecto.
By the end of the month, I will have finished the project.
Eles terão chegado quando nós sairmos.
They will have arrived by the time we leave.
Conditional perfect
Se tivesse estudado, teria passado no exame.
If I had studied, I would have passed the exam.
Teríamos ido à festa, mas o carro avariou.
We would have gone to the party, but the car broke down.
Present perfect subjunctive
Espero que eles tenham chegado bem.
I hope they've arrived safely.
É possível que o Pedro tenha perdido o comboio.
It's possible that Pedro has missed the train.
Pluperfect subjunctive
Se eu tivesse sabido, teria ligado mais cedo.
If I had known, I would have called sooner.
Gostava que tivesses ficado mais tempo.
I wish you had stayed longer.
Future perfect subjunctive
Quando tiveres acabado, avisa-me.
When you've finished, let me know.
Compound infinitive
Lamento ter chegado atrasado.
I'm sorry for having arrived late.
Compound gerund
Tendo terminado o trabalho, foi-se embora.
Having finished the work, he left.
Tendo estudado tanto, merecia uma boa nota.
Having studied so much, she deserved a good grade.
The invariability rule — the participle never agrees
This is the most important rule about the whole construction, and the source of one of the most common errors for Spanish, Italian, and (especially) French speakers.
When the past participle is used with ter, it never changes form. It does not agree with the subject. It does not agree with the object. It stays in the masculine singular form, no matter what.
| Subject | Correct form with ter | What you might expect (wrong) |
|---|---|---|
| ela | tem falado | *tem falada |
| eles | têm falado | *têm falados |
| elas | têm falado | *têm faladas |
| as cartas (object) | tenho escrito as cartas | *tenho escritas as cartas |
Ela tem escrito cartas todos os dias.
She has been writing letters every day. (escrito, not escritas — even though cartas is feminine plural)
As crianças têm feito muitos progressos.
The children have made a lot of progress. (feito, not feitos — even though the subject is plural)
Já tínhamos visto aquelas fotografias.
We had already seen those photos. (visto, not vistas)
Why this is a trap for Romance speakers
French — French avoir + participle forces agreement with a preposed direct object: les lettres que j'ai écrites ("the letters I wrote"). French speakers instinctively reach for escritas. Don't. Portuguese doesn't do this.
Italian — Italian avere + participle also has some object agreement. Portuguese doesn't.
Spanish — Spanish haber + participle does not agree, same as Portuguese. Good news for Spanish speakers: your instinct is already correct.
The rule across all tenses is the same: with ter (or archaic haver), the participle is frozen in the masculine singular.
The two participles (short and long)
A handful of Portuguese verbs have two past participles — a regular "long" form used with ter in compound tenses, and an irregular "short" form used with ser / estar in passives. This does not break the invariability rule; it just means the same verb has two participle shapes for two different jobs.
| Infinitive | With ter (long / regular) | With ser / estar (short / irregular) |
|---|---|---|
| aceitar | tenho aceitado | está aceite |
| entregar | tenho entregado | está entregue |
| ganhar | tenho ganhado | está ganho |
| gastar | tenho gastado | está gasto |
| matar | tenho matado | está morto |
| pagar | tenho pagado | está pago |
| romper | tenho rompido | está roto |
With ter, use the long form; with ser or estar, use the short form. This page is only about the ter side of the split — for the passive / resultative side, see the dedicated page on short vs long participles.
Tenho pagado todas as contas antes do prazo.
I've been paying every bill on time. (pagado with ter)
A conta está paga.
The bill is paid. (paga with estar — agrees with conta)
How the ten tenses relate
One way to internalize the whole system is to see compound tenses as a grid: one axis is the tense of ter (present, imperfect, future, conditional, subjunctive forms, infinitive, gerund), the other is the fact that the participle is always the same.
Once you know how ter conjugates in a given tense, the compound version of any verb is automatic:
- Present of ter (tenho, tens, tem, temos, têm) → present perfect compound (tenho falado, tens falado…)
- Imperfect of ter (tinha, tinhas, tinha, tínhamos, tinham) → pluperfect compound (tinha falado…)
- Future of ter (terei, terás, terá, teremos, terão) → future perfect (terei falado…)
- Conditional of ter (teria, terias, teria, teríamos, teriam) → conditional perfect (teria falado…)
- Present subj. (tenha, tenhas, tenha, tenhamos, tenham) → present perfect subj. (tenha falado…)
- Imperfect subj. (tivesse, tivesses, tivesse, tivéssemos, tivessem) → pluperfect subj. (tivesse falado…)
- Future subj. (tiver, tiveres, tiver, tivermos, tiverem) → future perfect subj. (tiver falado…)
- Infinitive (ter / teres / termos…) → compound infinitive (ter falado / teres falado…)
- Gerund (tendo) → compound gerund (tendo falado)
One conjugation paradigm for ter unlocks every compound tense in the language. This is why drilling ter across tenses is such high-leverage work.
Common Mistakes
❌ Ela tem falada com o chefe.
Incorrect — the participle does not agree with the subject. It stays as falado.
✅ Ela tem falado com o chefe.
She has been speaking with the boss.
❌ Eles têm escritos muitas cartas.
Incorrect — no plural agreement with ter.
✅ Eles têm escrito muitas cartas.
They have been writing many letters.
❌ As cartas que tenho escritas são para ti.
French-style object agreement — doesn't exist in Portuguese.
✅ As cartas que tenho escrito são para ti.
The letters I've been writing are for you.
❌ Hei falado com o Pedro.
Archaic — modern EP uses ter, not haver, as the compound-tense auxiliary.
✅ Tenho falado com o Pedro.
I've been talking with Pedro.
❌ Tenho pago a conta.
Wrong participle choice with ter — use the long form pagado. (pago is the short form, reserved for ser / estar passives.)
✅ Tenho pagado a conta.
I've been paying the bill.
Key Takeaways
- In modern EP, every compound tense is built with ter
- past participle. Ten tenses, one auxiliary.
- The tense / mood lives on ter; the main verb contributes only the invariable participle.
- The participle never agrees with anything when paired with ter. No gender, no number, no object agreement — ever.
- For verbs with two participles, use the long / regular form with ter (tenho pagado, tenho ganhado, tenho gastado).
- Drilling ter across all tenses is the single most efficient way to learn compound tenses, because every compound tense inherits its person / number / tense from ter.
To see how ter came to replace haver in this role, see Ter vs Haver as Auxiliary. For the individual tenses, see the compound-tense family starting with the overview.
Related Topics
- Ter for PossessionA1 — How the verb ter expresses ownership, family, physical traits, body parts, age, time, and the family of 'ter + noun' states that English handles with 'to be'.
- Ter de / Ter que for ObligationA2 — How ter extends from possession to obligation ('have something to do' → 'have to do'), with the full tense inventory, the de vs que register split, and comparison with dever and precisar de.
- 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.
- Compound Tenses OverviewA2 — The complete inventory of European Portuguese compound tenses built with ter + past participle, across indicative, subjunctive, infinitive, and gerund.
- Past Participle: Regular FormsA2 — How to build regular past participles in European Portuguese — -ar → -ado, -er → -ido, -ir → -ido, with full paradigms and natural examples.
- Pretérito Perfeito Composto OverviewB1 — The Portuguese present perfect and why it's different from English or Spanish