Breakdown of Nós tínhamos imprimido os catálogos no escritório.
nós
we
ter
to have
em
in / on / at
o escritório
the office
imprimir
to print
o catálogo
the catalogue
Questions & Answers about Nós tínhamos imprimido os catálogos no escritório.
Why do we use imprimido here instead of impresso?
The verb imprimir (to print) has a double past participle: the regular imprimido and the irregular impresso. Because we are using the auxiliary verb ter (here, tínhamos), the rule is to use the regular participle. You only use the irregular impresso with the verbs ser or estar (for example, Os catálogos foram impressos).
Why doesn't the word imprimido change to imprimidos to match the plural os catálogos?
When you build a compound tense using the auxiliary verb ter, the past participle is completely fixed. It always stays in the default masculine singular form (imprimido), no matter the gender or number of the subject or the object. Participles only agree in gender and number when used as adjectives or with the verbs ser and estar.
What tense is tínhamos imprimido?
This is the compound pluperfect tense, which translates to "had printed" in English. It describes an action that happened before another action in the past. You form it by taking the imperfect tense of the auxiliary verb ter (which gives us tínhamos for Nós) and adding the past participle of your main verb (imprimido).
Could we use the auxiliary verb haver instead of ter for this sentence?
Yes, you could say Nós havíamos imprimido. The verb haver can also act as an auxiliary for this tense, and it follows the exact same double participle rule: it takes the regular form (imprimido). However, in modern everyday European Portuguese, ter is much more commonly used than haver for these compound tenses.
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