Breakdown of Há um ano que os cisnes viviam perto da lagoa.
um
a / an / some (all forms)
o ano
the year
viver
to live
perto de
near
Questions & Answers about Há um ano que os cisnes viviam perto da lagoa.
Why does the Portuguese sentence use Há (there is) to mean "for"?
Why is the verb viviam in the Imperfect tense, if the English translation says "had been living"?
When you combine the time expression Há... que with a verb in the Imperfect tense, it translates to the English past perfect continuous ("had been doing"). The imperfect viviam shows that the swans living there was an ongoing, continuous situation in the past. If the sentence used the present tense (vivem), it would mean they have been living there (and still are).
Could I put the time expression at the end, like in English?
Why is it da lagoa instead of just de lagoa?