Embora eu tenha trabalhado bastante, ainda não terminei o relatório.

Although I have worked a lot, I still haven’t finished the report.

Breakdown of Embora eu tenha trabalhado bastante, ainda não terminei o relatório.

• eu: I
• não: not
• ter: to have
• trabalhar: to work
• bastante: a lot
• terminar: to finish
• o relatório: the report
• ainda: still
• embora: although

Questions & Answers about Embora eu tenha trabalhado bastante, ainda não terminei o relatório.

Why is it tenha trabalhado and not trabalhei after embora?

In Portuguese, embora almost always triggers the subjunctive mood.

• tenha trabalhado is present perfect subjunctive.
• trabalhei is pretérito perfeito do indicativo (simple past indicative).

After embora, you normally use the subjunctive, even when the fact is actually true (you really did work a lot). So:

• ✅ Embora eu tenha trabalhado bastante... (natural, correct)
• ❌ Embora eu trabalhei bastante... (sounds wrong/foreign)

What exactly is the tense of tenha trabalhado, and how does it compare to English?

Tenha trabalhado is the present perfect subjunctive form of trabalhar.

Structure:

• eu tenha (present subjunctive of ter) + trabalhado (past participle).

In meaning, it’s close to English “although I have worked a lot”, but in Portuguese this tense is tightly linked to embora and other conjunctions that require subjunctive. In everyday speech, you mostly see the present perfect subjunctive after such conjunctions, not on its own.

Why does embora require the subjunctive even when the action is real?

The subjunctive in Portuguese is not only for unreal or hypothetical situations. It is also used for:

• contrast / concession (even though, although)
• doubt or subjectivity
• purpose, condition, temporal clauses, etc.

Embora always introduces a concessive idea: “this is true, but something unexpected is also true.” Because of this concessive nuance, it regularly takes the subjunctive:

• Embora eu tenha trabalhado bastante, ainda não terminei o relatório.
• Embora esteja cansado, vou continuar.

Could I say apesar de eu ter trabalhado bastante instead of embora eu tenha trabalhado bastante? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can. Both are natural, with a small difference in structure:

• Embora eu tenha trabalhado bastante...
  
  • embora
    • verb in the subjunctive.
• Apesar de eu ter trabalhado bastante...
  
  • apesar de
    • noun / infinitive clause (ter trabalhado is infinitive of ter
      • past participle).

Meaning-wise, they’re very close to “although / even though I have worked a lot.”
Embora sounds a bit more compact and slightly more formal; apesar de is extremely common in both spoken and written Portuguese.

What does bastante mean here? Is it “enough” or “a lot”?

In this sentence, bastante means “a lot / a great deal.”

• Eu trabalhei bastante. ≈ “I worked a lot / I worked hard.”

Depending on context, bastante can mean:

• a lot / very: Ele fala bastante. (He talks a lot.)
• enough: Já é bastante por hoje. (That’s enough for today.)

Here it clearly has the “a lot” sense, not “enough” – because the report is still not finished.

Could I say muito instead of bastante? Is there a nuance?

You can say:

• Embora eu tenha trabalhado muito, ainda não terminei o relatório.

Both bastante and muito work and mean “a lot.”
Nuance (very subtle and context‑dependent):

• muito often feels more neutral or slightly stronger in many regions.
• bastante can sound a bit more colloquial in some contexts, or slightly softer than muito, but it’s widely used.

In this sentence, either option is perfectly natural in Brazilian Portuguese.

Why is there a comma after bastante but not after embora?

The comma separates the subordinate clause from the main clause:

• Embora eu tenha trabalhado bastante, (subordinate concessive clause)
• ainda não terminei o relatório. (main clause)

You don’t place a comma directly after embora because embora eu tenha trabalhado bastante is a single clause; you don’t want to break the conjunction away from its verb. The comma goes at the end of the dependent clause, before the main clause.

Can I invert the order, like in English: “I still haven’t finished the report, although I’ve worked a lot”?

Yes. You can also say:

• Ainda não terminei o relatório, embora eu tenha trabalhado bastante.

This is completely correct. In Portuguese, both orders are fine:

1. Embora eu tenha trabalhado bastante, ainda não terminei o relatório.
2. Ainda não terminei o relatório, embora eu tenha trabalhado bastante.

The meaning is the same; choice depends on style and emphasis.

What does ainda add to the sentence? Could I omit it?

Ainda here means “still / yet.”

• Ainda não terminei o relatório. ≈ “I still haven’t finished the report / I haven’t finished the report yet.”

If you remove it:

• Embora eu tenha trabalhado bastante, não terminei o relatório.

This is still correct, but it sounds more like a simple fact in the past (“I didn’t finish the report”), and you lose the idea that, up to now, the report remains unfinished. Ainda emphasizes that the situation is ongoing.

Why is it terminei (simple past) and not something like tenho terminado?

In Brazilian Portuguese, for completed actions with a present result, the usual tense is the pretérito perfeito do indicativo (simple past):

• (Eu) terminei o relatório. = “I finished the report.”

To express “I still haven’t finished”, you simply negate it:

• Ainda não terminei o relatório.

The form tenho terminado exists, but is much rarer and usually means something like “I have been finishing (repeatedly / habitually)”, which doesn’t fit here. So não terminei is the natural way to say “have not finished” in this context.

Why is relatório masculine? How can I tell?

Relatório is grammatically masculine, so you say:

• o relatório
• este relatório
• meu relatório

There is no fully reliable rule for all nouns, but many words ending in ‑o are masculine in Portuguese (carro, livro, trabalho, relatório).
You mostly learn gender word by word, but endings can give you strong hints. Here, relatório clearly takes the masculine article o.

If I replace o relatório with a pronoun, where does it go? How would Brazilians actually say it?

Grammatically, you could say:

• Ainda não o terminei.

Here, o = o relatório (direct object pronoun).
However, in everyday Brazilian Portuguese, this sounds formal or stilted. More natural options are:

• Keep the noun: Ainda não terminei o relatório.
• Move ainda: Não terminei o relatório ainda.

Brazilians tend to avoid direct object pronouns like o, a, os, as in speech, especially in the middle of the sentence.

Are there other common ways to express the same idea, similar to embora eu tenha trabalhado bastante?

Yes, some very common alternatives:

• Mesmo tendo trabalhado bastante, ainda não terminei o relatório.
• Mesmo que eu tenha trabalhado bastante, ainda não terminei o relatório.
• Ainda que eu tenha trabalhado bastante, ainda não terminei o relatório.

All keep the idea: “Even though / Although I have worked a lot, I still haven’t finished the report,” with slightly different levels of formality. Embora is one of the most standard and neutral choices.