In short

The pretérito perfeito simples is the tense of what happened: a single, finished action, seen as a whole and done with. It is the past you reach for to tell a story or report your day - Ontem falei com o médico (“Yesterday I spoke to the doctor”). Building it from a regular verb is the same two-step move you learned for the present (Lesson 6): take the stem, add the ending. There are only three sets of endings, one per conjugation, and just two things trip English speakers up - the tu form has no final -s, and in European Portuguese the nós form of -ar verbs carries a written accent (falámos) that keeps it apart from the present.

The rule

The endings

Drop the infinitive ending to get the stem (falar -> fal-, comer -> com-, partir -> part-), then add:

• -ar verbs: -ei, -aste, -ou, -ámos, -aram
• -er verbs: -i, -este, -eu, -emos, -eram
• -ir verbs: -i, -iste, -iu, -imos, -iram

Unlike the present, the -er and -ir groups are not near-twins here: they share only the eu form (-i: comi, parti) and differ in every other person (comeste vs partiste, comeu vs partiu, comemos vs partimos, comeram vs partiram). And as always in European Portuguese, você, o senhor and ele/ela take the third-person singular form (falou, comeu, partiu), while vocês and eles/elas take the third-person plural (falaram, comeram, partiram).

Two forms that look like the present

This tense overlaps the present indicative in two spots, so context does the disambiguating:

• The nós form of -er and -ir verbs is spelled the same in both tenses: comemos and partimos are present and past. Only the time frame tells you which - Todos os dias comemos sopa (present) vs Ontem comemos sopa (past).
• For -ar verbs, European Portuguese avoids the clash with a written accent: the past nós form is falámos, chegámos, estudámos (open, stressed á), while the present is falamos, chegamos, estudamos. The accent is not decoration - it reflects the open vowel EP actually pronounces in the past, and the accented form is the European-Portuguese standard for marking the tense in writing. (Strictly, the Acordo Ortográfico of 1990 makes this accent optional, so falamos for the past is also permitted; but in EP the accented falámos is the recommended and near-universal written form, so write it.)

Verbs in -car, -gar, -çar

A small set of -ar verbs change their spelling in the eu form only, so that the consonant keeps its sound before the -ei ending (a spelling rule from the reading & pronunciation guide, not a real irregularity): c becomes qu, g becomes gu, and ç becomes c. Every other person is completely regular.

• ficar -> fiquei (but ficaste, ficou, ficámos, ficaram)
• chegar -> cheguei
• começar -> comecei
• pagar -> paguei, explicar -> expliquei, jogar -> joguei

What it is for

Use the pretérito perfeito simples for a completed action or event, however long it lasted, as long as you view it as finished: a single moment (Fechei a porta), a bounded stretch (Vivi cinco anos em Faro), or a chain of events in a narrative (Cheguei, paguei a conta e saí). It pairs naturally with time markers that close the action off: ontem, anteontem, na semana passada, no ano passado, em 2015, há dois dias, de repente.

Two boundaries worth flagging now. For description and background in the past - what things were like, what you used to do, an action still in progress - Portuguese uses a different past tense, the pretérito imperfeito (Lesson 22); the contrast between the two is drilled in Lesson 23. And note that this simple past also does the job of the English present perfect: “I have already eaten” is Já comi, not a ter + participle construction (that form exists but means something else - Lesson 43).

Forms & patterns

The endings, side by side:

The three model verbs in full:

The eu-form spelling shift of -car / -gar / -çar verbs:

Examples

Common mistakes

• Tu falastes / comestes / partistes -> falaste / comeste / partiste - the tu preterite ends in -ste with no final -s; adding one is a very common slip (and a Spanish habit).
• Nós falamos ontem. -> Nós falámos ontem. - in European Portuguese the past nós of an -ar verb is written with the acute (falámos, chegámos); drop it and the form is spelled exactly like the present falamos.
• eu ficei / começei -> fiquei / comecei - verbs in -car, -gar, -çar change their spelling in the eu form only, to keep the consonant sound before -ei.
• Eu tenho falado com ele ontem. -> Falei com ele ontem. - English “I have spoken (yesterday)” is the simple preterite in Portuguese; tenho falado is a different tense (Lesson 43) meaning a repeated or continuing action.
• eu comí / partí -> comi / parti - the eu form of -er and -ir verbs is a plain -i with no written accent.
• Quando era criança, comi muita sopa. -> … comia muita sopa. - a repeated or habitual past (“used to eat”) is the imperfeito (Lesson 22), not this tense; the pretérito perfeito simples is for a bounded, completed event.

Tips

• This is the tense of “what happened” - single finished actions and the events that move a story along. Anchor it with markers like ontem, na semana passada, em 2015, há dois dias, de repente.
• Learn the eu endings first (-ei for -ar, -i for -er/-ir), and watch the spelling of -car/-gar/-çar there: fiquei, cheguei, comecei, paguei.
• Two forms clash with the present, so read the time frame: -er/-ir nós (comemos, partimos) is identical in both tenses, and only the accent separates -ar falámos (past) from falamos (present).
• Never put a final -s on the tu form. Beyond that one trap and the spelling shifts, regular preterites have no stem changes at all.
• Portuguese uses this simple past where English often uses the present perfect: Já almoçaste? (“Have you had lunch?”), Perdi as chaves (“I’ve lost my keys”). Do not build a ter + participle form for these.
• The next lesson (21) covers the high-frequency irregular preterites (fui, fiz, tive, disse); everything here is the predictable majority.