In short

Two compound tenses that together express the past that did not happen - the “third conditional” of Se tivesse sabido, teria dito (“If I had known, I would have said”). Both are built the way every compound tense in this course is built - an auxiliary (ter) plus the past participle of Lesson 24 - and the only new thing is which form of ter you put in front:

• condicional composto = ter in the conditional (Lesson 32: teria) + participle -> “would have done”.
• mais-que-perfeito composto do conjuntivo = ter in the imperfect subjunctive (Lesson 46: tivesse) + participle -> “had done”, as a hypothesis.

They are the natural partners of the se-clause system you meet in full next lesson, but each also earns its keep alone - for regret, for conjecture, and after any subjunctive trigger that points back in time.

The rule

The condicional composto - teria feito

Take ter in the conditional (teria, terias, teria, teríamos, teriam) and add the participle. It has four everyday jobs:

• Past unreal result - what would have happened: Com mais tempo, teria acabado o projeto. - With more time, I would have finished the project.
• Regret and reproach - “I would have…/ you could have…”: Eu teria feito diferente. / Terias podido avisar-me! - You could have warned me!
• Conjecture about the past (“must have / would have been”): Teriam sido umas cem pessoas. - There must have been about a hundred people.
• Future-in-the-past in reported speech (Lesson 44): Ele disse que teria terminado até sexta. - He said he would have finished by Friday.

The MQP composto do conjuntivo - tivesse feito

Take ter in the imperfect subjunctive (tivesse, tivesses, tivesse, tivéssemos, tivessem) and add the participle. It is the subjunctive’s past-perfect, so it turns up wherever a past hypothesis sits in subjunctive territory:

• The se-clause of a past-unreal condition: Se eu tivesse estudado… (the full three-way system is Lesson 49).
• After any subjunctive trigger, pointing back: Foi pena que não tivesses vindo. / Embora tivesse chovido, saímos. / Duvidava que ele tivesse mentido.
• Wishes about the unchangeable past: Quem me dera que eu tivesse ficado! / Oxalá tivesse dito a verdade.

The pair in action

The classic past-unreal sentence locks the two together: se + tivesse + participle (the condition) with teria + participle (the result). Either half can come first; put a comma after the se-clause when it leads:

• Se tu me tivesses avisado, eu teria ido. - If you had warned me, I would have gone.
• Eu teria ido se tu me tivesses avisado. - same meaning, order reversed.

The two halves are not interchangeable: the se-clause takes tivesse, the result takes teria - never the other way round. You can also mix a past cause with a present result (Se tivesse nascido rico, hoje seria feliz - “if I had been born rich, today I’d be happy”), which Lesson 49 lays out in full.

Colloquial EP (and BP) note. In everyday speech, European Portuguese very often swaps one or both compound forms for the mais-que-perfeito composto do indicativo (Lesson 25, tinha feito): Se tivesse sabido, tinha ido. That is normal spoken register - keep the full teria ido for writing and careful speech. Brazilian Portuguese does the same and leans on it even more.

haver as a formal auxiliary

As with every compound tense, haver may replace ter: houvesse feito (subjunctive), haveria feito (conditional). Both are literary; ter is the everyday default.

Forms & patterns

ter - the two auxiliary forms you need:

A model verb, fazer (participle feito), in both tenses - the participle never moves:

The irregular participles from Lesson 24 come straight back: teria/tivesse dito, visto, posto, aberto, escrito, ganho, pago.

Examples

Common mistakes

• teria in the se-clause: Se eu teria estudado… -> Se eu tivesse estudado… - the se-condition takes the subjunctive (tivesse); teria belongs in the result clause.
• Indicative after a subjunctive trigger: Embora tinha chovido -> Embora tivesse chovido - triggers like embora, foi pena que, como se, duvidava que demand the subjunctive form, not tinha.
• Making the participle agree: Elas teriam chegadas. -> Elas teriam chegado - with ter the participle is invariable, always the -o form.
• Building “would have” with ir: Iria ter feito -> Teria feito - “would have + participle” is simply the conditional of ter + participle; there is no iria here.
• Wrong participle shape: tivesse fazido -> tivesse feito - irregular participles keep their Lesson 24 form (feito, dito, visto, posto).
• Backshift slip in reported speech: Prometeu que terá acabado (a future-perfect in a past frame) -> Prometeu que teria acabado - a past reporting verb pulls the “future perfect” back to the condicional composto.

Tips

• The recipe is fixed: choose the ter form, glue on the participle. teria + participle = “would have”; tivesse + participle = “had” (hypothetical). Everything else is the participle you already know from Lesson 24.
• In a se-sentence say the halves as a locked pair: se… tivesse / main … teria. If you find yourself putting teria after se, stop and switch it.
• Reach for the condicional composto for regret and reproach on its own (“I would have…”, “you could have…”), not only inside se-sentences.
• In speech you will hear - and may use - tinha feito (Lesson 25) in place of teria feito; recognise it as the colloquial stand-in, but write the full form.
• Keep haver (houvesse / haveria + participle) for deliberately formal or literary writing.