Log inSign up

Há um ano que os cisnes viviam perto da lagoa.

Há um ano que os cisnes viviam perto da lagoa.
The swans had been living near the lagoon for a year.
From Lesson 253:Past duration (há ... que)·Portuguese (Portugal)

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"?
In Portuguese, to say how long an action has been going on, we use Há followed by the amount of time, plus que. Literally, this sentence says "There is a year that the swans...". It is the standard way to express "for a year" when an action was or is ongoing.
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?
Yes, you can put há um ano at the end of the sentence. However, if you do this, you must drop the word que. Both Há um ano que os cisnes viviam perto da lagoa and Os cisnes viviam perto da lagoa há um ano are perfectly correct and mean the exact same thing.
Why is it da lagoa instead of just de lagoa?
The phrase for "near" is perto de. Because lagoa (lagoon) is a specific feminine noun here ("the lagoon"), we need the definite article a. The preposition de merges with a to become the contraction da.

Learn Há um ano que os cisnes viviam perto da lagoa and more in Portuguese

All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.

  • ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
  • ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
  • ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free
Start learning Portuguese →