Breakdown of Ontem tive dor de cabeça e um pouco de febre durante a viagem.
um
a
de
of
ter
to have
e
and
ontem
yesterday
pouco
little
durante
during
a viagem
the trip
a dor de cabeça
the headache
a febre
the fever
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Questions & Answers about Ontem tive dor de cabeça e um pouco de febre durante a viagem.
Why is tive used here instead of tinha or estive?
In Portuguese, you use ter in the pretérito perfeito (tive) to report that you “had” a symptom at a specific moment (yesterday). Tinha (pretérito imperfeito) would suggest an ongoing or habitual state (“I was having headaches regularly”). Estive is the past of estar, but we don’t normally say estive febre; rather, estava com febre if you want to stress your condition over a period of time.
Why is there no article before dor de cabeça but there is um in um pouco de febre?
When you say you “had a headache,” Portuguese typically omits the indefinite article: tive dor de cabeça is more idiomatic than tive uma dor de cabeça (though the latter is grammatically correct and adds emphasis). In um pouco de febre, um is part of the quantifier phrase um pouco de (“a little bit of”), so it is required.
Could I instead say tive uma dor de cabeça? What changes?
Yes. Tive uma dor de cabeça focuses on one particular headache (often implying it was more severe or well-defined). Tive dor de cabeça is more neutral and idiomatic.
Why is it durante a viagem and not simply durante viagem or na viagem?
Prepositions in Portuguese usually pair with the definite article: durante + a viagem = durante a viagem (“during the trip”). You could say na viagem (contraction of em + a), but durante a viagem places more emphasis on the duration rather than just the time or place.
Can I drop durante and say tive dor de cabeça e febre na viagem?
Absolutely. Na viagem means “on the trip” and is perfectly natural:
Tive dor de cabeça e febre na viagem.
That phrasing is a bit more colloquial and focuses on when it happened, not the whole duration.
What’s the difference between tive febre and tive um pouco de febre?
Tive febre simply reports “I had a fever” (of unspecified intensity). Tive um pouco de febre specifies it was mild or low-grade (“a little bit of fever”).
Could I use dores de cabeça in the plural?
Yes. Tive dores de cabeça means “I had headaches” (several episodes). Use plural when you want to stress that it happened more than once or was intermittent.
Why doesn’t this sentence include the subject pronoun eu?
Portuguese verbs are conjugated for each person, so tive already tells you the subject is “I.” Including eu (Eu tive…) is optional and only needed for emphasis or contrast.
Could I say estava com dor de cabeça e febre instead of tive?
Yes. Estava com + symptom is a common way to describe how you felt:
Estava com dor de cabeça e febre durante a viagem.
This puts the focus on your state throughout the trip, rather than simply reporting the event.
Why is cabeça spelled with a “ç” and an accent on the first “e”?
Portuguese uses ç (c-cedilla) to represent the /s/ sound before a, o, u. The acute accent on the first e in cabeça marks stress on that syllable and indicates an open vowel /ɛ/.