Learn Portuguese (Portugal): Há muito tempo que eu observava aquele pássaro. - I had been observing that bird for a long time.

Há muito tempo que eu observava aquele pássaro.

I had been observing that bird for a long time.

Breakdown of Há muito tempo que eu observava aquele pássaro.

muito

much / very

aquele

that over there (aquele, aquela, aqueles, aquelas)

o tempo

the time

Questions & Answers about Há muito tempo que eu observava aquele pássaro.

Why does the Portuguese sentence use the Imperfect tense (observava) instead of a complex past tense?

When an action started in the past and was still happening at another point in the past, Portuguese uses the Imperfect tense. While English uses the past perfect continuous ('had been observing'), Portuguese simply combines the Imperfect with há muito tempo que (for a long time) to describe this ongoing background action.

How does Há muito tempo que translate to 'for a long time'?

Literally, it means 'There is much time that'. The verb haver (conjugated here as há) is used in Portuguese to express elapsed time. When indicating how long an action has been going on, starting the sentence with há [time period] que is a very common and natural structure.

Is the word que mandatory in this sentence?

Yes, because the time expression is at the beginning of the sentence. The que acts as a bridge connecting the time frame to the action. If you moved the time phrase to the end of the sentence, you would drop the que: Eu observava aquele pássaro há muito tempo.

Why use aquele instead of esse for 'that' bird?