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Portuguese (Portugal)

### 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.

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### 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.

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### 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.

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Past duration (há ... que)

adjective

adverb

conjunction

contraction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

particle

phrase

prefix

prep

preposition

pron

pronoun

sentence

verb

Demonstratives and the verb to be (isto é, o, a)

Subject pronouns and negation (eu, não)

Yes/no questions and question words (quem, o que)

Plural pronouns, articles, and verbs (somos, são, os, as)

Origin and possession (de, do, da)

Introductions (chamar-se)

Indefinite articles (um, uma, uns, umas)

The verb to be for locations (estar)

Contrasting the two verbs to be (ser vs. estar)

Preposition for locations (em, no, na)

Numbers 0 to 10 (zero, um, dois)

The verb to have (tenho, tem)

Regular -ar verbs (falar, trabalhar)

Regular -er verbs (comer, beber)

Regular -ir verbs (abrir, partir)

My, your, and our (o meu, a nossa)

His, hers, and theirs (dele, dela)

Adjective agreement and placement

Days of the week (segunda-feira)

Months of the year (janeiro)

Counting by tens to 100 (trinta, quarenta...)

Telling time (é uma, são...)

Asking about time (quando, a que horas)

The verb to go (ir)

Prepositions of direction (a, para)

Preposition a contractions (ao, à, aos, às)

Prepositions of place (ao lado de, em frente de...)

Demonstratives (este, esse, aquele)

Contractions with demonstratives (neste, desse, daquele)

Asking which and how many (qual, quanto)

Plurals ending in -ão (-ões, -ãos, -ães)

Plurals ending in consonants (-ns, -is, -es)

The verb to like (gostar de)

The verb to need (precisar de)

The verb to want (querer)

The verb can or may (poder)

Expressing obligation (ter de)

Adverbs of degree (muito, pouco)

Quantifiers (muito, pouco)

Comparatives (mais... do que, menos... do que)

Equality comparisons (tão... como)

The preposition com (comigo, contigo)

Coordinating conjunctions (e, mas, ou, porque)

The preposition por (pelo, pela)

Double negation (nunca, nada, ninguém)

Present continuous (estar a)

Near future (ir)

Past tense of regular -ar verbs

Past tense of regular -er and -ir verbs

Past tense of ser and ir (fui, foi)

Direct object pronouns (me, te, o, a, nos, os, as)

Pronoun placement with negatives and questions

Greetings and courtesy (bom dia, obrigado)

Physical states with ter (ter fome, ter frio)

Asking the way (à direita, sempre em frente)

Colours (vermelho, amarelo, cor-de-rosa)

Money and shopping (custar, a moeda)

Getting around (o motorista, a paragem de autocarro)

Weather and seasons (faz calor, o inverno)

Omitting the subject pronoun

Where things are: ficar (Onde fica...?)

Richer questions: que + noun and é que

Numbers above 100 (cento e vinte, mil)

First-person sound changes (durmo, prefiro)

Advice and ability: dever and saber

Asking why: porquê and porque

When one thing happens: quando-clauses

Here and there: aqui, aí, ali (cá e lá)

Formal and plural possessives: o seu, o vosso

Irregular presents: ver, vir, dar

Present irregulars

Reflexive verbs (me, te, se, nos)

Stem-changing reflexives

Attached object pronouns (-lo, -la, -los, -las)

Nasal attached pronouns (-no, -na, -nos, -nas)

Pronoun placement with adverbs

Past tense of fazer, dizer, and trazer

Past tense of ter, estar, poder, and saber

Past tense of querer and vir

Past tense of ver, dar, and ler

Past tense reflexive verbs (-se)

Time elapsed in the past (há)

Question	Answer
I had been observing that bird for a long time.	Há muito tempo que eu observava aquele pássaro.
the binoculars	os binóculos
The gentleman hadn't been able to use the binoculars for months.	Há meses que o senhor não conseguia usar os binóculos.
the nest	o ninho
the stork	a cegonha
On Sundays, we could see the stork's nest with the binoculars.	Aos domingos, nós conseguíamos ver o ninho da cegonha com os binóculos.
the eagle	a águia
the lagoon	a lagoa
The eagle had been flying near the lagoon for days.	Há dias que a águia voava perto da lagoa.
the swan	o cisne
The swans had been living near the lagoon for a year.	Há um ano que os cisnes viviam perto da lagoa.
the sparrow	o pardal
On Tuesdays, we used to look for the sparrows near the lagoon.	Às terças-feiras, nós procurávamos os pardais perto da lagoa.
the owl	a coruja
attentively	atentamente
The woman had been observing the owl attentively for days.	Há dias que a mulher observava a coruja atentamente.
On Fridays, that owl would catch a sparrow.	Às sextas-feiras, aquela coruja apanhava um pardal.
The students had been studying the eagles for months.	Há meses que os alunos estudavam as águias.
On Saturdays, the swan would always stay in the nest.	Aos sábados, o cisne ficava sempre no ninho.
For a long time, I had been watching the stork attentively on Saturdays.	Há muito tempo que eu observava a cegonha atentamente aos sábados.
wild	selvagem
On Saturdays, my friends and I used to observe the wild ducks.	Aos sábados, eu e os meus amigos observávamos os patos selvagens.
to migrate	migrar
The wild eagles had been migrating to the south for weeks.	Há semanas que as águias selvagens migravam para o sul.
the flock	o bando
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.
She had been observing the nests on Tuesdays for weeks.	Há semanas que ela observava os ninhos às terças-feiras.
For a month, we had been seeing the flock migrate on Sundays.	Há um mês que víamos o bando migrar aos domingos.