Portuguese 6.3. Pluperfect Indicative Tense

In Portuguese, the pluperfect indicative tense, literally meaning the more than perfect tense, describes the past before the simple past.

If two actions took place in the past, the one that occurred before is often described in the pluperfect tense.

Conjugation

The pluperfect indicative is formed as follows:

“Ter” or “Haver”  in the imperfect + past participle

The pluperfect indicative uses the verb “ter” in the imperfect and is conjugated as follows:

		-ar ending e.g., falar	-er ending e.g., comer	-ir ending e.g., partir
eu	tinha	falado	comido	partido
ele/ela/você	tinha
nós	tínhamos
eles/elas/vocês	tinham

Examples

Here are some examples the pluperfect indicative tense in Portuguese in context:

Antes de nos conhecermos, eu nunca tinha ido na Espanha.	Before we met, I had never been to Spain.
Quando fui visitar minha mãe, minha irmã já tinha chegado.	When I visited my mom, my sister had already arrived.
Depois que o jogo tinha sido cancelado, os torcedores foram para casa.	After the game had been canceled, the spectators went home.

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