Completed events versus past habits and background

In brief

When telling a story in Brazilian Portuguese, use the pretérito perfeito for a completed event: what happened? Use the pretérito imperfeito for what used to happen or what the situation was like at the time. The imperfect sets the scene; the perfect moves the story forward.

Form

Completed event: pretérito perfeito (cheguei, ligou). Habit or background: pretérito imperfeito (chegava, chovia).

Usage

• Choose the perfect for a one-time, finished event: Ontem comprei pão.
• Choose the imperfect for a repeated past habit: Antes eu comprava pão todo dia.
• Use the imperfect for an ongoing background situation and the perfect for an event that occurred during it.

Examples

• Ontem eu visitei minha avó. — Yesterday I visited my grandmother.
• Quando eu era criança, visitava minha avó todo domingo. — When I was a child, I used to visit my grandmother every Sunday.
• Chovia quando o ônibus chegou. — It was raining when the bus arrived.
• A loja estava fechada, então voltei para casa. — The store was closed, so I went back home.

Common mistake

❌ Quando eu era criança, visitei minha avó todo domingo.

✅ Quando eu era criança, visitava minha avó todo domingo.

Use the imperfect (visitava) to describe a repeated past habit without focusing on its endpoint; the perfect (visitei) presents the visits as a completed series.

Remember

Ask whether a verb describes the background or reports an event in the story.