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Portuguese (Portugal)

### Expressing Past Duration

To express how long an action *had been* happening in the past before another event took place, Portuguese uses a specific structure combining **há**, a time expression, the word **que** (that), and a verb in the imperfect tense.

The formula looks like this:
**Há** + [time expression] + **que** + [imperfect indicative]

Notice that while English uses the past perfect continuous ("had been investigating"), Portuguese uses the imperfect tense to show the action was ongoing during that past period.

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### Tracing Family Roots

When researching your family tree, you might spend years looking for records (*os registos*) of your ancestors (*os antepassados*). The word **há** remains exactly the same whether the time expression is singular or plural.

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You can use different time words to describe the duration, such as **muito tempo** (a long time), **bastantes meses** (quite a few months), or **demasiado tempo** (too long).

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### Setting the Scene in the Past

This **há ... que** structure is frequently used to set the background for another specific event in the past. The ongoing action (in the imperfect tense) tells us what *had been* happening up until a new event (usually in the simple past, or *Pretérito Perfeito*) occurred.

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Past time 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
to investigate	investigar
the family tree	a árvore genealógica
I had been investigating the family tree for a long time.	Há muito tempo que eu investigava a árvore genealógica.
the record (registry, document)	o registo
the ancestor	o antepassado
They had been looking for the ancestors' records for years.	Há anos que eles procuravam os registos dos antepassados.
the great-grandfather	o bisavô
to emigrate	emigrar
Our great-grandfather had been wanting to emigrate for quite a few months.	Há bastantes meses que o nosso bisavô queria emigrar.
the great-grandmother	a bisavó
the certificate	a certidão
The great-grandmother had been looking for the certificate for too long.	Há demasiado tempo que a bisavó procurava a certidão.
the generation	a geração
the origin	a origem
The new generations had been investigating their origin for years.	Há anos que as novas gerações investigavam a origem delas.
The certificate that you were looking for was found by the great-grandfather.	A certidão que tu procuravas foi encontrada pelo bisavô.
Our ancestors had been living here for quite a few generations.	Há bastantes gerações que os nossos antepassados moravam aqui.
She had been wanting to discover the family's origin for a long time.	Há muito tempo que ela queria descobrir a origem da família.
They had been wanting to live abroad for years.	Há anos que eles queriam viver no estrangeiro.
The family tree was created by my great-grandmother.	A árvore genealógica foi criada pela minha bisavó.
They liked to investigate the ancestors' records.	Eles gostavam de investigar os registos dos antepassados.
The ancestors had been wanting to emigrate for many years when the war started.	Há muitos anos que os antepassados queriam emigrar quando a guerra começou.