How this lesson works
Milestone lesson: the past tense unlocks storytelling. The warm-up is a bigger 8-question review of Lessons 1–4.
Today you will learn to say:
"Ontem eu estudei português, comi na praia e assisti a um filme. Hoje estou cansado, mas feliz!"
"Yesterday I studied Portuguese, ate at the beach and watched a movie. Today I'm tired, but happy!"
📐 Grammar in this lesson
| Pretérito perfeito — regular -AR | falei, falou, falamos, falaram — "I spoke / did speak" |
| Pretérito perfeito — regular -ER/-IR | comi, comeu, comemos, comeram · abri, abriu… |
| Past time markers | ontem, anteontem, a semana passada, o ano passado, já |
| The three-tense system | falei (past) → falo (present) → vou falar (future) |
The 8 steps (±40 min)
| 1 | Review — 8 questions covering Lessons 1–4 | 3 min |
| 2 | Words — 16 new words + 5 new verbs | 5 min |
| 3 | Grammar — the pretérito perfeito, all three families | 8 min |
| 4 | Cards — flashcards, multiple choice, typing | 9 min |
| 5 | Dialogue — what did you do yesterday? | 3 min |
| 6 | Summary — the cheat-sheet | 1 min |
| 7 | Test — 30 questions in 3 categories, heavy on review | 8 min |
| 8 | Results — your scores, saved automatically | 1 min |
Step 1 · The big warm-up — Lessons 1–4
Eight questions, two per lesson. Under 6 correct? Redo the weakest lesson before continuing.
Step 2 · 48 new words + 5 new verbs
Time markers for the past, fun things to talk about, and feelings. Tap or hover for translations; click and repeat.
Talking about the past ⏪
Fun & free time 🎉
Feelings 💭
Story words 📖 — every one of these turns up in this lição’s história
Don’t drill these like the lists above. Read them once, then meet them again in the story — that second meeting is what makes them stick.
New verbs (all regular — the machine you already know)
| comprar | to buy (-ar) | |
| dançar | to dance (-ar) | |
| jogar | to play a game/sport (-ar) | |
| aprender | to learn (-er) | |
| assistir | to watch (-ir) |
Step 3 · Your first past tense
The pretérito perfeito — done, finished, completed actions. One idea, three ending sets.
📐 Three modes, one at a time
Portuguese sorts its tenses into three modes. You do not need the vocabulary to use them, but it explains why the names get long later on, and why a Brazilian grammar book calls things by names this course shortens.
Modo Indicativo — facts. What happened, happens, will happen. Eu falo. Eu falei. Eu falarei. Everything so far is this one.
Modo Subjuntivo — things wished, doubted or imagined. Se eu falasse… You meet it at B1.
Modo Imperativo — instructions. Fala! Fale! Lição 13.
So the full name of the simple past is pretérito perfeito do modo indicativo. Nobody says that out loud. Here it is just o perfeito, and the full names appear only where the name itself is the subject — the B2 tense map, and the lesson titles from Lição 21 on.
One mode at a time. The indicativo carries you to B1.
1 · What the pretérito perfeito IS
This tense = completed actions: things that happened and finished. "I spoke", "she ate", "we traveled". If you can pin it to a moment (yesterday, last week, in 2020), the perfeito is your tense. It answers the question: what happened?
| Ontem eu falei com minha mãe. | completed = perfeito |
| Ela comeu tudo. | one completed event |
| Nós viajamos em janeiro. | pinned to a time |
2 · -AR verbs in the past — falei, falou, falamos, falaram
Cut -ar, add -ei / -ou / -amos / -aram. Note the twist: nós falamos looks the same in present and past — the time word tells you which ("ontem nós falamos" = past).
| Eu trabalhei muito hoje. | eu → -ei |
| Você gostou do filme? | você → -ou |
| Eles dançaram a noite toda. | eles → -aram |
3 · -ER and -IR verbs in the past — comi, comeu, comemos, comeram
-ER verbs: -i / -eu / -emos / -eram (comer → comi, comeu). -IR verbs: -i / -iu / -imos / -iram (abrir → abri, abriu). The eu form is a simple -i for both — the easiest letter in the tense.
| Eu comi feijoada no domingo. | com + i |
| Ele bebeu dois cafés. | beb + eu |
| Ela abriu a loja cedo. Eles abriram depois. | -iu · -iram |
4 · Past time markers — the words that trigger the past
These words announce the pretérito perfeito is coming: ontem (yesterday), anteontem (day before), a semana passada (last week), o ano passado (last year), já (already). Hear one → expect -ei/-ou/-i/-eu endings.
| Ontem eu estudei duas horas. | ontem + pretérito perfeito |
| Você já visitou o Brasil? | já + pretérito perfeito = have you ever… |
| A semana passada nós assistimos a três filmes. | passada = last |
5 · The three-tense system — you now own time itself
With today's lesson your timeline is complete: past falei → present falo → future vou falar. Every regular verb, three time zones, one pattern each. This is the entire skeleton of A1 grammar.
| Ontem comi, hoje como, amanhã vou comer. | one verb, three tenses |
| Trabalhei, trabalho, vou trabalhar. | the full timeline |
| Ela estudou, estuda e vai estudar. | same for every person |
6 · Spelling changes in the eu-form — dancei, cheguei
A few -AR verbs bend their spelling in the eu past — not to be difficult, but to KEEP their sound when -ei arrives:
| dançar → eu dancei | ç becomes plain c before e |
| chegar → eu cheguei | gu keeps the hard g sound |
| ficar → eu fiquei | qu keeps the hard k sound |
7 · The classic slips of Lesson 5
| ❌ Eu comeu | ✅ Eu comi — -eu is the você/ele ending, not yours |
| ❌ Nós falou | ✅ Nós falamos — and yes, it looks like the present; "ontem" does the work: Ontem nós falamos |
| ❌ Eles falou | ✅ Eles falaram — plural past needs -ram |
| ❌ Eu dançei | ✅ Eu dancei — the ç drops before e and i |
❌ / ✅ Classic slip: assistir
| ❌ Eu assisti o filme. | ✅ Eu assisti ao filme. |
| ❌ Vamos assistir o jogo. | ✅ Vamos assistir ao jogo. |
In the sense of watching, assistir is indirect and takes a: assistir a + o = ao, assistir a + a = à. You will hear Brazilians drop it constantly in speech. Write it in.
Different verb, same spelling: assistir meaning to assist is direct and takes no preposition.
Step 4 · Cards — the repetition engine
Three rounds. Cards you miss come back until you get them.
Round 1 · Flashcards
Step 5 · What did you do yesterday?
Your first conversation in the past tense. Listen WITHOUT translations first — you know every verb in here.
Did you understand?
Step 6 · Resumo — Lesson 5 on one page
Your cheat-sheet. (Ctrl+P saves it as PDF.)
📐 New grammar
| Perfeito -AR | -ei, -ou, -amos, -aram (falei, falou, falamos, falaram) |
| Perfeito -ER | -i, -eu, -emos, -eram (comi, comeu, comemos, comeram) |
| Perfeito -IR | -i, -iu, -imos, -iram (assisti, assistiu, assistimos, assistiram) |
| Spelling quirks | dançar → dancei · jogar → joguei (sound stays regular) |
| já + perfeito | "already did": Já comi! |
| Three tenses | falei → falo → vou falar — past, present, future all unlocked |
🔧 New verbs (5, all regular) — present and past
| Verb | present (eu) | past (eu) | past (você/ele) | past (eles) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| comprar (buy) | compro | comprei | comprou | compraram |
| dançar (dance) | danço | dancei ⚠ | dançou | dançaram |
| jogar (play) | jogo | joguei ⚠ | jogou | jogaram |
| aprender (learn) | aprendo | aprendi | aprendeu | aprenderam |
| assistir (watch) | assisto | assisti | assistiu | assistiram |
💬 New words (16)
Step 7 · Final test — 30 questions in 3 categories
Past tense plus comebacks from every previous lesson. This one decides what Lição 6 drills.
Step 8 · Your results
Your progress is saved automatically. Sign in and it follows you to any device — phone, laptop, wherever you study next.
Needs more repetition
- Complete the drills and test first.