What this is about
The pretérito perfeito is THE past tense of Portuguese conversation — for actions that happened and finished: I spoke, she ate, we traveled. If you tell anyone what you did yesterday, this is the tense doing the work. (Its partner for background scenery — the imperfeito — arrives in Lição 9.)
FALAR — perfeito
COMER — perfeito
ABRIR — perfeito
When to use it
| Ontem eu trabalhei muito. | a finished action, stamped in time |
| Você comprou o livro? | did you buy…? — same tense |
| Nós dançamos a noite toda! | done and dusted → perfeito |
Exceptions & details
1 · -ER and -IR twins: in the past they differ only in the eu/você forms (comi/comeu vs abri/abriu — same endings actually!). Effectively one pattern to learn.
2 · nós falamos = present AND past. Context decides: Ontem nós falamos is unambiguous.
3 · Spelling guards in the eu-form: dançar → dancei, chegar → cheguei, ficar → fiquei — the sound never changes, only the spelling protects it.
4 · English "have done" ≠ Portuguese: "I have eaten" is usually just comi. The literal ter + participle construction means something else (Lição 25).
Practise this chapter
4 pool questions plus generated ones — 20 fresh practice questions, reshuffled every visit, inside the grammar library.
Practise Pretérito perfeito (regular past) — 20 questions →This chapter is taught in Lição 5 of the course — free, no account needed. Rumo is a complete Brazilian Portuguese course, A1 to B2; level A1 is free.