Pretérito perfeito (simples) — regular verbs
The pretérito perfeito is Portuguese's go-to past tense for completed actions: 'I spoke', 'she ate', 'we left yesterday'. One event, one time, done. Today's job is the regular endings on the three verb families: -ar (falar → falei), -er (comer → comi), -ir (partir → parti). The headline catch is the European-vs-Brazilian split in the nós form of -ar verbs: PT writes falámos with an accent, BR writes falamos without it.
What the pretérito perfeito means
It marks an action that's over and done with — a finished event with a clear endpoint, often anchored to a past time marker like ontem (yesterday), na semana passada (last week), no ano passado (last year), há dois dias (two days ago). Falei com a Ana ontem = I spoke with Ana yesterday. Compare with the pretérito imperfeito (lesson 18), which describes ongoing or habitual past situations. For now, just remember: completed = perfeito.
-ar verbs — falar
Drop -ar, add the endings: eu falei, tu falaste, ele/ela/você falou, nós falámos (PT) / falamos (BR), eles/elas/vocês falaram. Same pattern for every regular -ar verb: trabalhei, trabalhaste, trabalhou, trabalhámos/trabalhamos, trabalharam. Notice that the eu form ends in -ei, not -ou — only the 3rd-person singular gets -ou.
-er verbs — comer
Drop -er, add: eu comi, tu comeste, ele comeu, nós comemos, eles comeram. Same as beber → bebi, bebeste, bebeu, bebemos, beberam. The nós form here is comemos, identical to the present tense — context tells you which one is meant. Most -er verbs follow this pattern, but ler has a small twist: li, leste, leu, lemos, leram.
-ir verbs — partir
Drop -ir, add: eu parti, tu partiste, ele partiu, nós partimos, eles partiram. Abrir → abri, abriste, abriu, abrimos, abriram. Dormir is regular in this tense too: dormi, dormiste, dormiu, dormimos, dormiram. The 3rd-person singular ending -iu is the giveaway that you're in -ir territory.
PT vs BR: the nós-falámos accent
European Portuguese keeps an acute accent on nós falámos (we spoke) to distinguish it from the present tense nós falamos (we speak). Brazilian Portuguese never writes that accent — both tenses look identical: nós falamos = we spoke / we speak (context decides). Speekeet defaults to the PT spelling falámos but accepts falamos as a Brazilian alternative. The accent only appears on -ar verbs in the nós form; -er and -ir verbs stay the same in PT and BR (comemos, partimos).
Time markers that pull this tense
ontem = yesterday. anteontem = the day before yesterday. na semana passada = last week. no mês passado = last month. no ano passado = last year. há dois dias = two days ago (há = ago, with a verb in the past). a semana passada without na also works in casual speech. Pair any of these with a perfeito-tense verb and you've got a complete past sentence: Trabalhei muito ontem. Comprámos uma casa no ano passado.
