The verb “ter” (to have) works in Portuguese not only for its intended purpose. With it, we can create other tenses and forms. In today’s article, we want to collect complete information about this verb, show its behavior in various situations and tenses.
Present Tense
The first use of the verb “ter” occurs when we want to show that we own something. To do this, we need to know the forms of its conjugation in the present tense.
| Verbo “ter” | |
| eu | tenho |
| tu | tens |
| ele, ela, você | tem |
| nós | temos |
| eles, elas, vocês | têm |
A banal example goes like this:
Eu tenho uma casa grande. (I have a big house.)
Os meus amigos têm cinco gatos e um cão. (My friends have 5 cats and one dog.)
The same form of the verb “ter” is useful to us in order to create another interesting construction in the present tense: “ter” + a verb with the ending “-ado / –ido”. This construction describes an action that began once and continues to this day, or which has been happening regularly lately, namely:
Temos frequentado uma piscina desde a semana passada nós. (We have been visiting the pool since last week.)
Past Tense
In the past tense, we use the verb “ter” in exactly the same way to describe that something belongs to us.
However, there are two types of past tense, respectively, and the forms of “ter” are different for each of them. Let’s consider in order.
Pretérito Perfeito Simples is the tense in which the action was repeated once or at the moment its regularity is not important, because it took place for a short period of time. For the verb “ter” in this case, the following forms are used:
| Verbo “ter” (PPS) | |
| eu | tive |
| tu | tiveste |
| ele, ela, você | teve |
| nós | tivemos |
| eles, elas, vocês | tiveram |
Tu tiveste um encontro importante na semana passada. (You had an important meeting last week.)
Elas tiveram muitas oportunidades, mas não usaram nenhuma delas. (They had many opportunities, but they didn’t use any of them.)
Pretérito Imperfeito is the tense when the duration and regularity of the action in the past is emphasized. Usually, such sentences use the adverb “antigamente” (before) or indicate a long period of time, for example, “quando era criança” (when I was little) or “quando estudava na escola / universidade” (when I was at school / university). The verb “ter” is conjugated as follows:
| Verbo “ter” (PI) | |
| eu | tinha |
| tu | tinhas |
| ele, ela, você | tinha |
| nós | tínhamos |
| eles, elas, vocês | tinham |
Antigamente eu tinha boas notas. (I used to have good grades.)
Quando tu eras adolescente, tinhas uma aparência muito engraçada. (When you were a teenager, you had a very funny appearance.)
The same “ter” form will be useful to us in order to form the time Pretérito Mais-Que-Perféito do Indicativo. Simply put, it is the past tense, that is, one action occurs before another action in the past.
Here we again take the verb “ter” in the correct form and add the main verb with the ending “-ado/ido”.
Verbs with this ending have the name “particípios” (participles), but we are not talking about them now, so we will omit such details. Let’s take a look at some examples.
Quando nós chegámos, vocês já tinham ido embora. (When we arrived, you had already left.)
Future Tense
Everything is so simple here that we will not dwell on this topic for a long time. First, we can use the verb “ir” to create the future tense and not conjugate the verb “ter”: Vou ter um carro novo. (I will have a new car.). Secondly, unlike other tenses, in the future tense, the verb “ter” has the same endings as all regular verbs:
| Verbo “ter” (PF) | |
| eu | terei |
| tu | terás |
| ele, ela, você | terá |
| nós | teremos |
| eles, elas, vocês | terão |
There is one detail. If we want to emphasize that in the future one action will happen before another, we use the same pattern as before: ter + a verb ending in “-ado/ido”.
Quando chegares a casa, já terei preparado um bolo. (When you come home, I will already bake a cake.)
That is, we can conclude that often the verb “ter” helps us to indicate that the action has already been completed by a certain moment. The same theory is proved by the situation when we use such words as “depois de” (after). We are used to the fact that in most cases we put the infinitive after it and for some pronouns we add a special ending. However, sometimes we need to indicate that one action can only happen after another. Then the verb “ter” comes to our aid.
Tu pudeste ir passear só depois de teres acabado o trabalho para casa. (You were only able to go for a walk after you have finished your homework.)
Pudemos ir buscar o nosso carro depois de termos recebido as cartas de condução na polícia. (We were able to pick up our car after we had received our license from the police.)
Confirmei a reserva delas depois de terem comprado bilhetes. (I confirmed their reservation after they had bought the tickets.)
Similarly happens in “Presente do Conjuntivo” if something has already happened:
Espero que tenhas fechado a porta. (I hope you closed the door.)
In addition, we can say that in the Gerund, when we show the concomitance of one action to another, we use the following form: tendo. In cases where the verb “ter” itself needs to be deformed and made into a participle, we use the form – tido.
Conjuntivo
Again, we will please you that the verb “ter” here is absolutely regular here. That is, exactly the same rules apply to it as apply to other verbs. Forgot how Conjuntivo is formed? We will remind you of this next time!
Conclusion
Do you now realize the importance of the verb “ter” in Portuguese? It is urgent to learn all its irregular forms. It’s good that they are all collected in this article. Happy learning!