Recent experiences and changes in Brazilian Portuguese

Level B1

Recent experiences and changes in Brazilian Portuguese

You are updating a colleague after a change in where you work. Build a short account of the old routine, its change and what has been happening since. Study the examples with audio; then pass on the same facts without adding a schedule.

One event or an action happening now?

Trabalhar means “to work”; eu is “I”, often omitted when the verb and context identify the speaker. Agora means “right now”: estou trabalhando is “I am working”, with estou from estar as an auxiliary and trabalhando the -ndo form of trabalhar. Ontem means “yesterday”; trabalhei is “I worked”, a finished event. No escritório means “in the office”: escritório is a masculine workroom noun, and no joins em + o (“in” + “the”). Em casa means “at home”; casa is “home”.

You already know tenho from ter for possession, “I have”. Here the same form will help build a verb phrase; it will not mean possessing the work.

A recent period and its starting point

Ultimamente means “lately”: it locates a pattern in a recent period without saying exactly when it started. Desde means “since” before a starting point. Segunda-feira is “Monday”; desde segunda-feira is “since Monday”. It does not mean “for one Monday”. Neither word tells you how many times the activity happened.

Tenho trabalhado: a pattern extending to now

Listen to the two examples. Tenho trabalhado is “I have been working”: tenho is the auxiliary ter for eu, and trabalhado is the past participle of trabalhar. Compare trabalhado, ending -ado, with trabalhando, ending -ando. Use tenho + trabalhado, not tenho + trabalhando, for this construction. With ter, the participle here stays trabalhado; it does not change with the speaker’s gender.

In Brazilian Portuguese, this compound perfect presents repetition or continuity extending up to now. Our examples concern a recent period; the construction is not restricted to short periods. Ultimamente frames that period; desde adds its beginning. It need not mean working every day or at this exact moment.

Do not translate every English present perfect with tenho + participle. “I have worked at home once” can report one completed experience: that does not give tenho trabalhado its repeated/continuing meaning. For a finished event yesterday, use the earlier trabalhei.

tenho particípio + período recente ou ponto inicial

Recognize venho trabalhando

Venho trabalhando em casa desde segunda-feira describes the same ongoing pattern here, with attention to its development up to now. Venho is the eu form of vir, used as an auxiliary; it does not mean physically coming home. It takes trabalhando, the -ndo form, rather than trabalhado. Recognize this useful alternative; use tenho trabalhado in your own update for now. The two constructions are not interchangeable in every context.

Read one connected update

Read the four lines in order as one person’s message. Antes means “previously”; trabalhava is “I used to work / was working”, the background routine. Eu makes the speaker explicit. Na segunda-feira means “on Monday”; na joins em + a here to locate the day. Comecei is “I started”, from começar; comecei a trabalhar is “I started working”, with a before the infinitive trabalhar.

The speaker previously worked in the office, started working at home on Monday, and has been working at home lately. Yesterday the speaker worked in the office. That final event can be an exception to the recent pattern: the message does not say every day is spent at home, or explain why yesterday was different.

Pass on the facts faithfully

Imagine this is your own situation. Without reading the model, give a colleague a three-sentence update in Portuguese: the former routine, the home-working pattern with its Monday starting point, and yesterday’s event. Keep the first person. Combine the start and the continuing pattern with desde; do not add “every day”, a reason or a future plan.

One possible answer is: “Antes, eu trabalhava no escritório. Tenho trabalhado em casa desde segunda-feira. Ontem, trabalhei no escritório.” Compare it with the audible lines above. Then change only the starting day to another day you already know and make the same kind of update about yourself.

Choose the viewpoint that fits the message

Trabalhei reports a finished event; estou trabalhando shows an action in progress now; tenho trabalhado presents repetition or continuity up to now. Ultimamente gives a recent period and desde its starting point. Recognize venho trabalhando as another way to present continuity. Your update should preserve what changed and what is still a pattern.

Practise this lesson

Next lessons