Past Participle in Portuguese

In very simple and layman’s terms, the past participle in Portuguese is equivalent to the “ed” form in English (think: closed, worried, cancelled, etc). It’s also a descriptive word, describing the end result of the action. We use it in compound and passive tenses. A particular feature of a participle is that when on its own, it’s never attached to any temporal location or grammatical person. This means it’s not conjugated, in other words, it doesn’t take on the forms forms “I”, “you” “we”, etc.

The past participle is formed by removing the endings “ar“, “er” or “ir” from the infinitive forms and adding “ado” for ar verbs and “ido” for er and ir verbs. There are of course irregular ones too, but first, let’s look at some of the most used regular participles.

Infinitivo	ser	dar	ficar	ouvir	pedir	ler	ter	saber	achar
Particípio	sido	dado	ficado	ouvido	pedido	lido	tido	sabido	achado

Infinitivo	acabar	ir	deixar	estar	querer	sair	chegar	falar
Particípio	acabado	ido	deixado	estado	querido	saído	chegado	falado

Infinitivo	parecer	chegar	haver	falar	passar	poder
Particípio	parecido	chegado	havido	falado	passado	podido

Just like in English (said, done, made, etc), there are irregular ones that don’t end in ado or ido. Let’s look at some of the most used irregular past participles in Portuguese.

Infinitivo	dizer	ver	vir	fazer	abrir	ganhar
Particípio	dito	visto	vindo	feito	aberto	ganho

Infinitivo	gastar	descrever	pagar	pôr	escrever	cobrir
Particípio	gasto	descrito	pago	posto	escrito	coberto

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When is the Past Participle used?

In this paragraph, I explain when we use the participle. We use it in compound tenses, passive voice and sometimes as an adjective.

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Compound tenses

As we have seen in a previous lesson, if it’s a compound tense in Portuguese, there is an auxiliary verb (helping verb). And it’s the auxiliary verb that will be attached to a temporal location and a grammatical person. In other words, it’s the auxiliary verb that’s conjugated. The auxiliary verbs can be ter/ haver or ser/estar in the conjugated form. So, what are the compound tenses? Let’s look at the list below. (what’s a conjugation)

Indicative mood

• Pretérito Perfeito Composto do Indicativo
• O Pretérito Mais-Que-Perfeito Composto do Indicativo
• Pretérito Mais-que-Perfeito Anterior do Indicativo (This tense is rarely used)
• Futuro Perfeito Composto do Indicativo
• Condicional Composto do Indicativo

Subjunctive mood

• Pretérito Perfeito Composto do Conjuntivo
• Pretérito Mais-Que-Perfeito Composto do Conjuntivo
• Futuro Composto do Conjuntivo

Infinitive mood

• Infinitivo Pessoal Composto
• Infinitivo Impessoal Composto

Gerund mood

• Gerúndio Composto

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Pretérito Perfeito Composto do Indicativo

Indicates an action that occurred in the past repeatedly, extending to the present moment. For example:

“Eu tenho falado com o teu tio no café todo os dias” (I have been speaking with your uncle at the cafe every day)

Main post here (coming soon).

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Pretérito Mais-Que-Perfeito Composto do Indicativo

Indicates an action that occurred in the past, before another action that also occurred in the past. Example:

“Eu tinha falado com o teu tio antes de te ver” (I had spoken with your uncle before I saw you)

For more details and examples click here. (soon)

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Futuro Perfeito Composto do Indicativo

Indicates an action that will occur in the future, but will be completed before another future action.

“Eu terei falado com o teu tio no café antes de me encontrar contigo no fim do dia” (I will have spoken with your uncle before I meet you at the end of the day)

Main post here. (coming soon)

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Condicional Composto do Indicativo

Indicates an action that could have happened, but that is conditioned to another past action.

“Eu teria falado com teu tio se ele tivesse ido ao café.” (I would have spoken with your uncle if he had gone to the cafe)

More details and examples here. (soon)

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Pretérito Perfeito Composto do Conjuntivo

Indicates a hypothetical or unreal action that is already completed and that precedes another.

“Ela nem imagina que eu tenha falado com o teu tio” (She doesn’t even imagine that I have spoken with your uncle”

Main post here. (coming soon)

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Pretérito Mais-Que-Perfeito Composto do Conjuntivo

Indicates an action that occurred in the past, before another action that also occurred in the past. For example:

“Embora eu tivesse falado com o teu tio, ninguém acreditou.” (Although I had spoken with your uncle, no one believe it)

More examples and details here. (soon)

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Futuro Composto do Conjuntivo

Indicates a hypothetical completed action in the future, before another action that will also occur in the future. Example:

“Quando eu tiver falado com o teu tio, saberás.” (when I speak to your uncle, you will know)

Main post here with more examples. (coming soon)

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Infinitivo Pessoal Composto

Indicates a completed past event and follows the same rules as the Infinitivo Pessoal Simples.

“Termos falado com o teu tio foi muito bom.” (“us speaking” to your uncle was very good)

More examples here. (coming soon)

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Infinitivo Impessoal Composto

Indicates a completed past event and follows the same rules as the Infinitivo Impessoal Simples.

“foi óptimo ter falado com o teu tio” (It was great to speak to your uncle)

For more details, click here. (coming soon)

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Gerúndio Composto

Indicates a prolonged or continuous action that finished before the action of the main clause. Or action happening after the main clause. It will depend on semantics and other verb tenses used as to which one it is. For example:

“Tendo falado com o teu tio, já me sentia mais descansada.” (having spoken to your uncle, I would feel more at ease)

“Tendo falado com o teu tio, já me sinto mais descansada.” (having spoken to your uncle, I feel more at ease)

For more on this compound tense, please click here. (coming soon)

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Passive Voice

Passive voice is a syntactic construction in which the direct object comes to occupy the subject position, that is, it is the way the verb expresses itself in relation to the subject, which in the case of the passive voice, it suffers the action.

Let’s look at some examples:

Os gatinhos foram encontrados pelo jardineiro. (The kittens were found by the gardener.)

os gatinhos (the kittens): is now the subject that receives the verbal action
foram encontrados (were found): the verb is in the passive voice. “found” is the past participle used with the helping verb “to be” (were).

The active voice counterpart to this sentence would be:

O jardineiro encontrou os gatinhos. (the gardener found the kittens.)

Let’s look at another example:

A casa foi comprada por eles. (The house was bought by them.)

A casa (the house: is now the subject that receives the verbal action
foi comprada (was bought): the verb is in the passive voice. “bought” is the past participle used with the helping verb “to be” (was).

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Past Participle as an adjective

But what happens when the participle is an adjective? As an adjective, the participle indicates a state or a characteristic. In other words, it describes the finished or result of an action. The door “is open” because someone opened it. All past participles are adjectives as long as they are used in predicative sentences, meaning, with a copular verb. A copular verb is a type of verb used to join an adjective or noun to a subject. 

So examples of copular vers are: ser, estar, ficar parecer, permanecer, tornar-se, revelar-se, etc. Without the past participle, these verbs become semantically “empty” – they need a description/past participle to continue the meaning of the verb:

A loja está aberta. (the shop is open)

I can’t just say “the shop is” without anything else. The shop is “what/how”? In other words, “open” is describing the state or a characteristic of the shop, just like an adjective such as “blue” or “small”. The difference is that “open” comes from a verb.

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