In short

Once you can build past and present sentences, the next job is to anchor them in time: how long ago something happened, since when it has been going on, how long it lasted, and how far off the next thing is. Portuguese does this with a small kit of markers - há (“ago” / “for”), desde (“since”), daqui a and dentro de (“in / from now”), durante (“for / during”), plus the two little adverbs já (“already / yet”) and ainda (“still / yet”). None of them needs a new tense: they attach to the present, perfeito and imperfeito you already have. The catch is that they do not line up one-to-one with English, so this lesson is about matching each English idea to the right Portuguese marker.

The rule

há - “ago” and “for” (up to now)

Há is the impersonal verb haver (Lesson 8), and it measures a stretch of time back from now. It does two English jobs, and the tense of the other verb decides which:

• With a past verb it means “ago”: Cheguei há dois anos. - I arrived two years ago.
• With a present verb it means “for” (an action still going on): Moro aqui há dois anos. - I’ve lived here for two years.

That second pattern is a classic trap: English uses the present perfect (“I have lived”), but Portuguese uses the present - Estudo português há seis meses, not a compound tense. Colloquially you may also hear the span followed by atrás for “ago”: dois anos atrás.

Ask about it with há quanto tempo? (“how long (ago)?”): Há quanto tempo esperas? - How long have you been waiting?

desde - “since” (a starting point)

Desde needs a point where something began - a date, a day, an hour, an event - not a length:

• Trabalho aqui desde 2019. - I’ve worked here since 2019.
• Não o vejo desde segunda-feira. - I haven’t seen him since Monday.
• Desde que cheguei, tem chovido. - Since I arrived, it’s been raining.

Pair it with até for a span with both ends: Desde as nove até ao meio-dia. And note the contrast with há: há takes a length (“two years”), desde takes a start (“since 2019”). The formal blend desde há muito tempo (“for a long time now”) exists but you can ignore it for now.

daqui a / dentro de - “in / from now” (forward distance)

To measure forward from now to a future point, European Portuguese uses daqui a (“from now”) or dentro de (“within”):

• Volto daqui a cinco minutos. - I’ll be back in five minutes.
• O comboio parte dentro de meia hora. - The train leaves in half an hour.

Do not use há for the future - há only looks back. Keep em for “the time it takes to complete”, not the distance to a point: Faço isto em cinco minutos (“I’ll get it done in five minutes”) is fine, but “back in five minutes” is daqui a cinco minutos. (Brazilian Portuguese happily says em cinco minutos for both; EP keeps daqui a.)

durante - “for / during” (a finished span)

For a completed stretch, use durante (or often nothing at all):

• Estudei durante duas horas. - I studied for two hours.
• Vivemos em Faro durante três anos. - We lived in Faro for three years.

This differs from há + present, which runs up to now; durante frames a block that is over.

já and ainda - already, still, not yet, no longer

These two adverbs, plus negation, cover four everyday meanings. Learn them as a square:

• já = “already” (it has happened): Já acabei. - I’ve already finished. In a question it is “yet”: Já comeste? - Have you eaten yet? On its own já vou means “I’m coming right now”.
• ainda = “still” (it continues): Ainda estou a trabalhar. - I’m still working.
• ainda não = “not yet”: Ainda não acabei. - I haven’t finished yet.
• já não = “no longer” (it stopped): Já não moro lá. - I don’t live there any more.

já points at a change that has happened; ainda points at a state that has not changed. Flip each with negation to get “no longer” and “not yet”.

Forms & patterns

The distance-and-duration markers:

The já / ainda square:

Examples

Common mistakes

• Spelling há as à: À dois anos que estudo. -> Há dois anos que estudo - “ago / for” is the verb haver (há), never the preposition à.
• A compound tense for “for … up to now”: Tenho morado aqui há três anos. -> Moro aqui há três anos - Portuguese uses the plain present with há; tenho morado is a different idea (Lesson 43).
• desde with a length: Espero desde duas horas. -> Espero há duas horas (length) / Espero desde as duas (start point) - desde needs a point in time, há needs a span.
• há for the future: Volto há cinco minutos. -> Volto daqui a cinco minutos - há only looks back; forward distance is daqui a / dentro de.
• Mixing up “not yet” and “no longer”: Já não cheguei (for “I haven’t arrived yet”) -> Ainda não cheguei - ainda não = not yet; já não = no longer.
• “yet” as bare ainda: Ainda acabei (for “I haven’t finished yet”) -> Ainda não acabei - the “not yet” meaning always needs the negative ainda não.

Tips

• Sort the marker by the arrow: backward = há (“ago”) or desde (“since”); a closed block = durante; forward = daqui a / dentro de. Point the arrow first, then the word chooses itself.
• há wants a length, desde wants a start. “for two years” = há dois anos; “since 2019” = desde 2019.
• When English says “have + verb + for/since” about something still true, drop into the present in Portuguese: Namoramos há um ano = “We’ve been together for a year.”
• Fix the já / ainda square in your head: já (done) / ainda não (not done) / ainda (still on) / já não (stopped). Two words plus negation, four meanings.
• Brazilian note: the split is the same, but Brazil often says em for a future distance (volto em cinco minutos) where European Portuguese keeps daqui a cinco minutos; and Brazil frequently puts the span with faz (faz dois anos) alongside há.