The Preterit Indicative (often called the “simple past”) is by-far, the most important past-tense to know. Let’s look at the most common irregular verbs in this tense: fazer, ter, ir, ser, estar, querer & dizer. There are many more irregulars, but most of them will follow similar patterns to these common examples presented here.

The Preterit Indicative is sometimes called “the simple past tense” (or, the preterit). It’s the clearest past tense in Portuguese because It describes action that is over and done. Simple! Use it to say things like: I played soccer yesterday; Did she go to the club with you?; I liked the movie a lot — Don’t use it to say things like: If I were feeling better I’d go too; I was taking a shower when you called.

In Portuguese, there are several ways to refer to something that happened in the past – each with different shades of meaning. When you choose one Portuguese past tense over another, you’re letting people know more about the story you’re telling. Talking about the past is always an act of story-telling. The Preterit Indicative tense…