The past and conditional progressive tenses in Portuguese are similar to their uses in their counterparts in English.
Past Progressive Tense
The past progressive tense, similar to its use in English, describes an event that continued to take place in the past, e.g., “Eu estava falando” (I was speaking). It is formed by adding the imperfect tense of the auxiliary verb “estar” to the present participle, also known as the gerund.
| subject pronoun + imperfect tense of the verb “estar” + gerund |
| -ar ending e.g., falar | -er ending e.g., comer | -ir ending e.g., partir | ||
| eu | estava | falando | comendo | partindo |
| ele/ela/você | estava | |||
| nós | estávamos | |||
| eles/elas/vocês | estavam |
For example:
| Minha mãe estava cozinhando quando meu pai entrou em casa. | My mom was cooking when my dad entered the house. |
| Estávamos nadando enquanto você estudava. | We were swimming while you were studying. |
Conditional Progressive Tense
The conditional progressive tense is used to describe an event that would be happening now had another event happened earlier, e.g., “Eu estaria jogando se não estivesse machucado” (I would be playing if I weren’t injured). It is formed by adding the conditional form of the auxiliary verb “estar” to the gerund.
| subject pronoun + conditional form of the verb “estar” + gerund |
| -ar ending e.g., falar | -er ending e.g., comer | -ir ending e.g., partir | ||
| eu | estaria | falando | comendo | partindo |
| ele/ela/você | estaria | |||
| nós | estaríamos | |||
| eles/elas/vocês | estariam |
For example:
| Estaria falando com meu irmão se tivesse ido à casa dele ontem. | I would be talking to my brother had I gone to his house yesterday. |
| Eu não estaria comendo muito se estivesse de dieta. | I wouldn’t be eating much if I were on a diet. |
Other lessons in Level V:
