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O chefe gritava muito, mas ela terminou o projeto.

O chefe gritava muito, mas ela terminou o projeto.
The boss was shouting a lot, but she finished the project.
From Lesson 88:Contrasting past tenses·Portuguese (Portugal)

Questions & Answers about O chefe gritava muito, mas ela terminou o projeto.

Why use the Imperfeito for gritava but the Perfeito for terminou?
Gritava (was shouting) is a continuous, ongoing action in the past, which requires the Imperfeito. Terminou (finished) is a completed, single event, so it takes the Perfeito. Using them together like this is the classic way to show an action happening in the background while a specific, completed event takes place.
How can I easily remember the endings for these two past tenses?
Both gritar (to shout) and terminar (to finish) are regular -ar verbs. For the ele/ela (he/she) form, regular -ar verbs always take -ava in the Imperfeito (like gritava) and -ou in the Perfeito (like terminou).
Does the word chefe change if the boss is a woman?
The word chefe stays exactly the same! It is a two-gender noun. To show that a boss is female, you only change the article before it, using a chefe (the female boss) instead of o chefe (the male boss).
Why doesn't muito change its ending here?
In this sentence, muito (a lot) describes the verb gritava. When muito acts as an adverb to describe an action, it never changes form. It would only change to muita, muitos, or muitas if it were describing a noun, like in muitos projetos (many projects).

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