A short story about yesterday in Portuguese

Recover one completed event

Trabalhei ontem means “I worked yesterday”: trabalhar is “to work” and ontem is “yesterday”. Here trabalhei presents the work as a completed event, even if it takes several hours. Eu means “I”, but Portuguese often leaves it out when the verb and context identify the speaker; ela means “she”. Comer means “to eat”; you now use it for a completed event rather than an action in progress.

• Trabalhei ontem.🔊

  I worked yesterday.

Words for a day’s events

Listen to the cards, then say the words with their meanings: primeiro = first; depois = then; fazer = make; café = coffee; comer = eat; pão = bread; ter = have or take part in an event here; reunião = meeting. Café is masculine (o café), and reunião is feminine (a reunião); uma reunião means “a meeting”. In fiz café and comi pão, the food and drink need no article, much like “made coffee” and “ate bread” in English.

• primeiro🔊first
• depois🔊then
• fazer🔊make
• café🔊coffee
• comer🔊eat
• pão🔊bread
• ter🔊have
• reunião🔊meeting

A message about yesterday

Read and listen to the four lines as one message, in the order shown: “Yesterday, first I made coffee. Then I ate bread. Then I went to work. I had a meeting.” Primeiro introduces the first step; depois says that the next event comes after the one just mentioned. The last line is the next event in this message even without another depois. Fiz café describes a concrete task—preparing coffee—not a general list of things someone did.

• Ontem, primeiro fiz café.🔊

  Yesterday, first I made coffee.

• Depois, comi pão.🔊

  Then I ate bread.

• Depois, fui trabalhar.🔊

  Then I went to work.

• Tive uma reunião.🔊

  I had a meeting.

I did it, or she did it

For these completed events, learn the pairs fazer: eu fiz / ela fez (I made / she made); ter: eu tive / ela teve (I had / she had); comer: eu comi / ela comeu (I ate / she ate). Fazer and ter have irregular past forms here; do not build them by copying comi. The third-person forms also go with a name: Ana fez café, Ana comeu pão, Ana teve uma reunião. Portuguese uses one past verb here where English also uses one; there is no extra word corresponding to an auxiliary in “I have eaten”.

In tive uma reunião, ter describes having a meeting, not owning it. Primeiro is an ordering word here, so it stays primeiro when the subject is ela; it is not an adjective agreeing with her.

Eu / Ela fiz / fez · tive / teve · comi / comeu

• Primeiro, ela fez café.🔊

  First she made coffee.

• Ela comeu pão.🔊

  She ate bread.

• Ela teve uma reunião.🔊

  She had a meeting.

Going to work in the past

Fui trabalhar means “I went to work”: fui is the completed past of ir, and trabalhar stays in the infinitive, the dictionary form. Ela foi trabalhar means “she went to work”. These sentences describe going to do the activity; trabalhei says that I did the work. Do not read fui trabalhar as a future plan: fui places the going in the past.

Fui / Ela foi trabalhar

• Depois, fui trabalhar.🔊

  Then I went to work.

• Ela foi trabalhar.🔊

  She went to work.

Retell it, then change the order

First retell the original message about Ana: start with ontem and primeiro, change fiz to fez, comi to comeu, fui to foi and tive to teve, and use ela or Ana to name her. Keep the original order: coffee, bread, going to work, meeting. Then write your own three-event message for a different day: bread first, coffee next, going to work last. Try before reading the three model lines below; they give that changed order. Finally, tell a partner three true events from a day of your own, using the same verbs and changing only the details you know.

• Primeiro, comi pão.🔊

  First I ate bread.

• Depois, fiz café.🔊

  Then I made coffee.

• Depois, fui trabalhar.🔊

  Then I went to work.

One event after another

Use fiz/fez, tive/teve and comi/comeu to tell these completed events, with fui/foi trabalhar for going to work. Primeiro starts the sequence and depois moves it forward; each verb still has its own past form. Say a short message once as eu, then once as ela, keeping the events in the intended order.

• Primeiro, ela fez café.🔊

  First she made coffee.

• Ela teve uma reunião.🔊

  She had a meeting.