The Literary Past Perfect
In everyday conversation, Portuguese speakers use a compound tense (like tinha falado) to express "had spoken." However, in literature, journalism, and classic fairy tales, you will frequently encounter the simple past perfect (mais-que-perfeito simples). It is a single-word tense that means the exact same thing: an action that happened before another action in the past.
For the highly irregular verb ser (to be), the third-person simple past perfect form is fora (had been).
To recognize this tense in reading, look for its signature ending. For the third-person singular (he/she/it), the verb always ends in an unstressed -ra.
- For -ar verbs, the ending is -ara.
- For -er verbs, the ending is -era.
- For -ir verbs, the ending is -ira.
Because the stress naturally falls on the syllable just before the -ra, some verbs require an accent mark to maintain correct pronunciation. For example, destruir becomes destruíra.
Irregular Stems
Verbs that have an irregular stem in the simple past (preterite) use that same irregular stem for the simple past perfect.
For example, fazer (to do/make) uses the stem fiz-, becoming fizera (had done/made). Ver (to see) uses the stem vi-, becoming vira (had seen).
The Past Before the Past
The primary use of the past perfect is to establish a clear timeline. Notice how the simple past perfect establishes that an event was already completed before another past event occurred.