The Portuguese tenses
When something happens and how it is seen — finished, in progress, already done before: that is the question every tense answers. Here are all the topics about it, each with its own page and its own exercises.
All 22 topics on tense and time
A1Present tense: -ar verbsYour only ending is an -s on « he » — and here the -s belongs to « you ».A1Present tense: -er, -ir verbsTwo groups, and they part company in exactly one form.A2Stem-changing verbsOne form changes and five do not — and the temptation is to change all six.A2Present progressive: estar aYour -ing form is compulsory; this one is an emphasis, and using it for a habit says something odd.A1Irregular verbs in the presentSix verbs — and one of them, with its own family, has the only infinitives in the language ending in -or.B1Spelling changes in the presentTwo of these rules add a letter and two swap one — and none of them is an irregularity.A1Simple past (pretérito perfeito)No auxiliary at all — there is nothing to choose and nothing to put in front.A2Imperfect (imperfeito)Four irregular verbs in the whole tense — and it doubles as the polite « I would like ».A2Perfeito or imperfeito?Length is the wrong test, and « for ten years » is the sentence that proves it.A2Irregular past: fui, tiveOne form belongs to two verbs: fui is « I was » and « I went ».B1Pluperfect (mais-que-perfeito)There is a one-word version, falara, that you need to read and never to say.B2Perfeito composto: tenho faladoIt looks exactly like « I have spoken » and means « I keep speaking ».C2The simple form in -raA tense you mostly read — and two phrases everybody says.A1Going to: ir + infinitiveGoing to, minus the to.B1Simple future (futuro simples)The future you would only ever write.B1Conditional (condicional)« Would » does four jobs in English; this form takes two of them.B2The future for guesses« Onde estarão as chaves? » is a question English cannot ask this way.C1Mesoclisis: dar-lhe-eiA pronoun wedged into the middle of the verb — English has nothing remotely like it.A2Present for the futureEnglish splits this between two presents; Portuguese has one.B1Choosing a future formThe form nearest your grammar book is the one you will use least.B1The future after quando and seEnglish forbids a future after « when »; Portuguese demands a tense of its own.B2Future perfect (futuro composto)Two jobs: what will be done by Friday, and what probably happened yesterday.
Practise the tenses
Exercises from every topic on tense and time, mixed together. That is exactly the hard part: almost anyone can build a form when it says next to it which one is meant.