The perfect tenses

In English, the past participle is the verb form such as spoken, written, shown, talked, or swum, which can be used with the auxiliary have to form the perfect tenses, as in have spoken, had swum, and so on. In Portuguese, too, the past participle is used in perfect verb tenses. First, let’s see how the past participle is formed. For verbs ending in –ar, remove –ar, and add –ado. For verbs ending in –er and –ir, remove –er or –ir and add –ido.

falar—falado to speak—spoken	beber—bebido to drink—drunk
andar—andado to walk—walked	dormir—dormido to sleep—slept
comer—comido to eat—eaten	decidir—decidido to decide—decided

There are also a lot of irregular past participles. Here’s a list of some of the more common ones.

abrir—aberto to open—opened	fazer—feito to do/make—done/made
cobrir—coberto to cover—covered	ganhar—ganho to win—won
dizer—dito to say/tell—said/told	gastar—gasto to spend—spent
escrever—escrito to write—written	pagar—pago to pay—paid
pôr—posto to put—put	ver—visto to see—seen
vir—vindo to come—come

To form the present perfect tense, use the verb ter (to have) as an auxiliary, along with the past participle. This tense expresses an action that started in the past and continues into the present, much like the English have been doing (present perfect progressive) or have done (present perfect.) The adverb ultimamente (lately) is often used with this tense.

Eu tenho estudado muito ultimamente.
I’ve been studying a lot lately./I’ve studied a lot lately.

Eles não têm ido ao cinema ultimamente.
They haven’t been going to the movies lately./They haven’t gone to the movies lately.

Você tem visto os jogos do campeonato?
Have you seen the championship games?

Nós não temos saído muito, temos ficado em casa.
We haven’t gone out much; we’ve been staying home.

The past perfect is formed with the imperfect of the verb ter (to have) and the past participle. It expresses an action in the past that happened before a more recent past action, like the English past perfect (had done). This tense sometimes goes with the adverb já (already).

Quando nós chegamos o jogo já tinha começado.
When we arrived the game had already begun.

Ele já tinha feito a reserva para o teatro.
He had already made the theater reservation.

Vocês já tinham saído quando eu telefonei.
You had already left when I called.

Onde eles tinham ido quando nós chegamos?
Where had they gone when we arrived?

Note that when you use an object pronoun, it comes between the verb ter (to have) and the participle:

Ele tem me telefonado ultimamente.
He has called me lately.

Nós não tínhamos lhes avisado.
We hadn’t warned them.