The Preterit Indicative is "the simple past tense"
Ready to move on the past tenses? Start here, with the Preterit Indicative. I call it the simple past because it's the clearest, simplest verb tense (*a verb tense describes a time that something happened.) in Portuguese. Hang around here a bit and you will meet the others. There are several Portuguese tenses used to talk about different kinds of action in the past! The Preterit Indicative always describes action that is over & done. Period.
Yesterday, I had dinner with my girlfriend.
We went to the movies.
I wanted to watch a comedy.
We got there late.
Over & done. Simple.
Forming the Preterit Indicative for ~ar ending verbs
The ~ar verbs are the most consistent.
Let's use it.
BTW, here's a great list of THE most common verbs that exist in the Portuguese language.
There are several irregulars you need to know. I've made a list of the most important irregular verbs in the simple past tense here. But lets' look at two irregulars that end in ~ar.
chegar
Chegar is only irregular in the first person, singular: cheguei.
Don't be tricked by the "u". It does nothing to affect the pronunciation.
dar
Dar is hopelessly irregular.
Vamos! O Pretérito Indicativo em contexto.
Lot's more examples of this tense from other Grammar & Posts:
The “simple past” = action that is over and done. Officially called the Preterit Indicative tense.
(eu) Eu entendi tudo. I understood everything.
(você, ele, ela) Ele nao entendeu. He didn't understand.
The “simple past” = action that is over and done. Officially called the Preterit Indicative tense. We’ll use PARTIR (to depart) to show the conjugations of regular ~ir verbs:
(eu) Eu parti às 7 horas. I left at 7 o'clock.
(você, ele, ela) Ela partiu para Europa ontém. She departed for Europe yesterday.
(eu) Eu consegui o apartamento! I got the apartment!
(você, ele, ela) Você conseguiu o emprego? Did you get the job?
the Portuguese past tense 
the Preterit Indicative of irregular verbs
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