Breakdown of Eu teria começado este curso mais cedo, se o tivesse conhecido antes.
Questions & Answers about Eu teria começado este curso mais cedo, se o tivesse conhecido antes.
Teria começado is the conditional perfect (also called compound conditional):
- teria = conditional of ter (“would have”)
- começado = past participle of começar (“started”)
Together they mean “would have started”, which fits a hypothetical past situation:
- Eu teria começado este curso mais cedo…
I would have started this course earlier…
Compare:
- Eu comecei este curso mais cedo.
“I started this course earlier.” (real past fact, no condition) - Eu começaria este curso mais cedo.
“I would start this course earlier.” (hypothetical, but not clearly in the past; more like now/future)
Here we’re talking about a past hypothetical (I didn’t actually start it earlier), so Portuguese needs teria + past participle: teria começado.
Tivesse conhecido is a compound past subjunctive (in traditional grammar: pretérito mais-que-perfeito composto do conjuntivo).
- tivesse = imperfect subjunctive of ter
- conhecido = past participle of conhecer
Together they mean “had known” in a hypothetical/unreal way:
- se o tivesse conhecido antes
“if I had known it earlier”
It’s used after se to talk about unreal conditions in the past, paired with the conditional perfect in the main clause:
- Se o tivesse conhecido antes, eu teria começado este curso mais cedo.
“If I had known it earlier, I would have started this course earlier.”
In standard Portuguese, when se introduces a hypothetical / unreal condition, you normally use the subjunctive:
- Se o tivesse conhecido antes… (unreal past condition)
Tinha conhecido or tive conhecido are indicative forms and would usually indicate real, factual past actions:
- Se eu tinha conhecido o curso, teria começado mais cedo.
This sounds non‑standard / regional and more like you doubted a past fact, not a purely hypothetical situation.
For the classic “third conditional” idea (“if I had known…, I would have…”), the normal pattern is:
- Se + subjunctive (past) → teria + past participle
Se o tivesse conhecido antes, teria começado…
O is a direct object pronoun meaning “it”, and here it refers back to este curso (which is masculine singular: o curso).
So:
- se o tivesse conhecido antes
literally: “if I had known it earlier”
In natural English we’d usually say “if I had known about it earlier”, but Portuguese often just uses a direct object pronoun with conhecer in this sense.
Portuguese has specific rules for where clitic pronouns (like o, a, os, as) go.
In European Portuguese, words like se usually force the pronoun to come before the verb (próclise):
- Se o tivesse conhecido… ✅ (correct, natural)
- Se tivesse conhecido-o… ❌ (wrong in standard Portuguese)
General rules relevant here:
- If the verb is preceded by certain words (including se when it means “if”), pronouns normally go before the conjugated verb.
- Enclisis (after the verb with a hyphen, like conhecê-lo) is used mainly when the verb starts the clause and there’s no “attracting” word like se, não, que, etc.
Also, the pronoun does not attach to the past participle in modern standard Portuguese; it attaches to the conjugated verb (tivesse), not to conhecido.
Yes, you can say:
- Se eu o tivesse conhecido antes, eu teria começado este curso mais cedo.
In Portuguese, subject pronouns (eu, tu, ele, etc.) are usually optional because the verb ending already shows the person:
- tivesse → clearly 1st person singular from context
- teria começado → also 1st person singular
So:
- Eu teria começado este curso mais cedo, se o tivesse conhecido antes.
- Teria começado este curso mais cedo, se o tivesse conhecido antes.
Both are grammatically fine. Adding eu can add emphasis or clarity if the subject might be ambiguous, but here it’s mostly for emphasis/style.
The sentence has two clauses:
- Eu teria começado este curso mais cedo (main clause)
- se o tivesse conhecido antes (conditional clause)
When the main clause comes first and the se‑clause comes second, Portuguese normally uses a comma to separate them:
- Eu teria começado este curso mais cedo, se o tivesse conhecido antes.
If you invert the order and start with se, the comma goes after the se‑clause instead:
- Se o tivesse conhecido antes, eu teria começado este curso mais cedo.
So the comma is just marking the boundary between the main clause and the conditional clause.
You might hear other positions, but the most neutral and natural order is:
- Eu teria começado este curso mais cedo.
Other possibilities:
- Eu teria começado mais cedo este curso.
Possible, but sounds less natural; the adverb normally goes after the direct object. - Eu mais cedo teria começado este curso.
Very unusual; sounds literary or marked for special emphasis.
A good rule of thumb:
In simple sentences, keep the order verb + object + adverb:
- teria começado + este curso + mais cedo
In traditional European Portuguese:
- este = something close to the speaker or in the present context
- esse = something close to the listener or just mentioned
- aquele = something far from both or more distant in time/space
So este curso often implies “this course (I’m talking about now / I’m in / I’m looking at)”.
In actual everyday usage, especially in speech, people often don’t strictly follow the traditional distinctions, and este / esse can overlap a lot. But in careful, standard European Portuguese, este is the default for “this (course)” you’re directly focusing on.
Yes, that’s possible in context:
- Eu teria começado este curso mais cedo, se tivesse conhecido antes.
Here, the missing object (o curso) is understood from context, so native speakers will still interpret it as:
- “if I had known about it earlier”
Including o is slightly more explicit and a bit more formal/standard:
- se o tivesse conhecido antes (clear reference back to este curso)
Omitting it is common in speech when the reference is obvious, but in writing or for learners it’s safer (and clearer) to keep the pronoun.
No, se o tivesse sabido antes is not natural here.
Saber and conhecer both translate as “to know” in English, but they’re used differently:
- saber = to know facts, information, how to do something
- Se eu soubesse disso antes… – “If I had known that earlier…”
- conhecer = to know / be familiar with people, places, things, works, courses, etc.
- Conheço este curso. – “I know this course / I’m familiar with it.”
For a course, Portuguese normally uses conhecer:
- Se eu tivesse conhecido este curso antes…
“If I had known about this course earlier…”
If you really want to use saber, you’d normally say:
- Se eu soubesse deste curso antes…
“If I knew about this course earlier…”
So in your original sentence, conhecido is exactly the right choice.