C2 · The past
The simple form in -ra
A tense you mostly read — and two phrases everybody says.
At a glance
- Remember
- fizeram without the m is fizera — read it, rarely write it.
- When
- Before the past
- The past
- Past linked to the present
- The present
- The future
- Completed in the future
Before the past — What was already over by the time the story got there.
- Form
- (eu) fizeraI had done
- Signal words
- -ara
- -era
- -ira
- quem me dera
- pudera
- Trap
- Wrong:Quando chegámos, ele já fazera o jantar.Right:Quando chegámos, ele já fizera o jantar.
Your turn
5 exercises on this topic. Your answers are checked in the browser; none of them leaves your device.
The form
How the forms are built
Each row gives the meaning first, then the form in Portuguese. The colours show what changes from one form to the next.
stem (irregular) tense marker person ending
| I had done | (eu) fizera |
| you had done | (tu) fizeras |
| he / she had done, you had done | (ele / ela / você) fizera |
| we had done | (nós) fizéramos |
| you had done, plural and formal | (vós) fizéreis |
| they had done, you all had done | (eles / elas / vocês) fizeram |
| he had spoken | falara |
| he had seen | vira |
| if only! | quem me dera! |
| no wonder! | pudera! |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is aboutThe word that calls for it
Built from the third person plural of the pretérito, without -m.
Ele já partira quando a carta chegou.He had already left when the letter arrived.
It means the same as tinha plus participle.
Contou o que vira naquela noite.He told us what he had seen that night.
Quem me dera and pudera are everyday speech.
Quem me dera ter férias agora!If only I had a holiday now!
In elevated language it also stands for the condicional.
Fora melhor não ter dito nada.It would have been better to say nothing.
Example sentences
Nunca vira uma tempestade assim.He had never seen a storm like it.
A casa onde nascera já não existia.The house where she had been born no longer existed.
Ganhou outra vez? Pudera, treina todos os dias!He won again? No wonder, he trains every day!
Quem me dera saber a resposta.If only I knew the answer.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
The stem comes from the pretérito, not from the infinitive. Fazer does not give fazera but fizera — from fizeram. And in the third person plural the two tenses look the same: fizeram can mean « they did » and « they had done »; only the context tells them apart.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
Beside tinha feito there is a simple form of the mais-que-perfeito: fizera, dissera, chegara. It is built from the third person plural of the pretérito — fizeram without the -m — and lives today in narrative prose, in reports and in elevated writing. English has no one-word « had done », so there is nothing to map it onto: it is « had » plus participle in a single word.
In a story that itself runs in the pretérito, it brings out what happened earlier without an auxiliary: Quando a carta chegou, ele já partira. Narrators often switch between the two forms; the simple one feels terser and more literary, the compound one more neutral.
Two phrases built on this form, on the other hand, belong to everyday speech: Quem me dera! — « if only! » — and Pudera! — « no wonder! ». Whoever hears them needs no grammar, only the meaning.
In older and markedly literary language the form also stands in for the condicional: fora melhor calar — « it would have been better to keep quiet ». You need to recognise it; you do not need to imitate it.
How well do you know this topic?
This is filled in automatically after you practise. You can change it here at any time.
Next on the path: 133 · The pronoun in elevated languageBack to the learning path