Past Duration with "Há ... que"
To express that an action had been going on for a certain amount of time in the past, Portuguese uses a simple structure: há + [time period] + que + [verb in the imperfect tense].
While English uses the past perfect continuous ("I had been observing"), Portuguese simply states that "there is" (há) an amount of time that an ongoing past action (imperfeito) was happening.
| I had been observing that bird for a long time. | Há muito tempo que eu observava aquele pássaro. |
| The gentleman hadn't been able to use the binoculars for months. | Há meses que o senhor não conseguia usar os binóculos. |
| The eagle had been flying near the lagoon for days. | Há dias que a águia voava perto da lagoa. |
| The swans had been living near the lagoon for a year. | Há um ano que os cisnes viviam perto da lagoa. |
Expressing Frequency with "Aos" and "Às"
When describing a recurring action on specific days of the week, use the preposition a contracted with the plural definite articles os or as.
- a
- os = aos (used with masculine nouns like domingos and sábados)
- a
- as = às (used with feminine nouns like terças-feiras and sextas-feiras)
When paired with the imperfect tense, these expressions naturally translate to things you "used to" or "would" do regularly in the past.
| On Sundays, we could see the stork's nest with the binoculars. | Aos domingos, nós conseguíamos ver o ninho da cegonha com os binóculos. |
| On Tuesdays, we used to look for the sparrows near the lagoon. | Às terças-feiras, nós procurávamos os pardais perto da lagoa. |
| On Fridays, that owl would catch a sparrow. | Às sextas-feiras, aquela coruja apanhava um pardal. |
Combining Duration and Frequency
Now that you know how to express both how long something had been happening and how often it happened, you can comfortably combine these structures to talk about long-term habits in the past.
| For a long time, I had been watching the stork attentively on Saturdays. | Há muito tempo que eu observava a cegonha atentamente aos sábados. |
| We had been following that flock of swans on Thursdays for months. | Há meses que seguíamos aquele bando de cisnes às quintas-feiras. |
| The flock had been coming here on weekends for years. | Há anos que o bando vinha para cá aos fins de semana. |