Breakdown of O tempo esteve terrível toda a semana.
o tempo
the time
a semana
the week
todo
all / whole
terrível
terrible
Questions & Answers about O tempo esteve terrível toda a semana.
Why use esteve (pretérito perfeito) instead of estava (imperfect) to describe past weather?
Usually, we use the imperfect (estava) to describe past weather because it sets a background scene. However, esteve is used here because the sentence defines a specific, closed timeframe (toda a semana). It treats the terrible weather as a completed event that lasted for that exact duration.
Why is estar used here instead of ser?
Weather conditions are always considered temporary states in Portuguese, so we use estar rather than ser. Even though the terrible weather lasted for a whole week, it is still a temporary state, not an inherent characteristic.
Why is there an a in toda a semana? Wouldn't just toda semana work?
In European Portuguese, toda a semana (literally "all the week") means "the whole week" or "all week long". To say "every week", you use the plural todas as semanas. While you might hear Brazilians drop the article to say toda semana for "every week", in Portugal you need the article to say "the whole week" and the plural to say "every week".
Is tempo the best word for "weather" here, or should I use clima?
Yes, tempo is the most natural word for day-to-day weather conditions, even though it also means "time". Clima translates closer to "climate" and is used for long-term weather patterns of a region, not a specific bad week.
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