Imperfect subjunctive

What it is

The pretérito imperfeito do subjuntivo (imperfect or past subjunctive) is the subjunctive you need when the trigger is in the past, or when you talk about something that isn’t real: Ela queria que eu fosse junto. Se eu tivesse tempo, aprenderia a tocar violão. Every form ends in -sse, which makes it one of the easiest forms to spot.

Brazilians use it all the time in conversation: to report what someone wanted or asked, to imagine (se eu fosse você…), to compare (como se), and to make soft suggestions (E se a gente fosse ao cinema?).

How to form it

Start from the eles form of the pretérito perfeito (pt-g-027, pt-g-028), drop -ram and add -sse: falaram → falasse, comeram → comesse, abriram → abrisse.

The nós form has a written accent on the vowel before -ssemos: falássemos, comêssemos, abríssemos, fôssemos. In speech, a gente with the singular form (a gente falasse) is far more common.

Irregular preterites carry over

Because the stem comes from eles in the preterite, every irregular preterite you know gives you its subjunctive for free:

Two pairs need care. Ser and ir share fosse, and the context tells them apart. Vir gives viesse, while ver gives visse. Verbs that change their stem in the present (dormir → durmo, pedir → peço) are regular here: dormisse, pedisse.

Try a few before reading on:

When to use it

1. After a trigger in the past. The rules you learned for the present subjunctive (wishes, requests, feelings, doubt) still apply. When the main verb is in the past or the conditional, the subjunctive moves to the past as well:

• Quero que você venha. → Queria que você viesse.
• Ele pede que a gente espere. → Ele pediu que a gente esperasse.
• Não acho que seja fácil. → Não achei que fosse fácil.
• Gostaria que vocês ficassem mais um pouco.

2. Unreal conditions with se. For things that are not true now, or very unlikely: Se eu soubesse, te contava. Se a gente morasse perto, se veria mais. In writing the other half uses the conditional (aceitaria); in speech the imperfeito (aceitava) or ia + infinitive is very common. Conditional sentences get their own topic next (pt-g-058).

3. Como se (as if) always takes the imperfect subjunctive, whatever the tense of the main verb: Ela fala como se fosse a chefe. Ele me olhou como se não me conhecesse.

4. Soft suggestions. E se a gente fosse à praia? sounds lighter than Vamos à praia? You will also hear E se a gente for…? with the future subjunctive.

5. Wishes about the present. Queria que você estivesse aqui. Quem dera fosse verdade!

Contrasts and traps

• No conditional after se. Se eu seria rico is wrong: Se eu fosse rico, viajaria. The -ria form belongs in the other half of the sentence.
• Present trigger, present subjunctive. Espero que você goste, but Esperava que você gostasse. A finished past request needs the past form: Pedi que ela me esperasse.
• vir or ver? Se ele viesse (if he came) vs se ele visse (if he saw).
• The present stem doesn’t count. Pudesse, not podesse; soubesse, not sabesse; fizesse, not fazesse. Always go through the preterite.
• Certainty keeps the indicative. Eu sabia que ele estava mentindo, not estivesse.

If you speak Spanish

Spanish has two forms (hablara and hablase); Portuguese only has the -sse one: hablara / hablase → falasse, fuera → fosse, tuviera → tivesse, pudiera → pudesse. The -ra forms do exist in Portuguese, but they are the literary pretérito mais-que-perfeito simples, meaning "had done": ele falara = él había hablado. Saying se eu tivera or queria que você viera sounds like a nineteenth-century novel at best. Watch viera in particular: in Spanish it comes from ver, but Portuguese viera comes from vir. The Portuguese for Spanish viera (saw) is visse.