"I have not eaten chicken since Saturday."

Translation: Eu não como frango desde sábado.

[Zaratexas]

At this point in the program, we haven't learned past tense.

[taba203163]

we have, but theyre not using it. this is messed up

[aviso]

What is the difference between comido and como?

[Paulenrique]

Comido = eaten. Como = eat. (For the 1st singular person in the presen tense). This sentence was translated in the present (eu não como = i dont eat) and not a literal translation (eu não tenho comido = i havent eaten)

[pango34]

Exactly. So "eu não tenho" would be the actual translation no? It's not just a weird grammatical rule in Portuguese?

[Paulenrique]

Well... it's present perfect. This stuff was discussed many times here... Duo drives us crazy on it!!

[gaih]

There is a wiki piece referencing 6 morphological forms of "tenses, aspects and/or moods": present, preterite, imperfect, pluperfect, future, and conditional. When I came across it, I was under the impression that in Portuguese Present Perfect wasn't explicitly defined (evidently you can construct one as shown) hence some of the confusions seen (such as this Duo translation). Is there any truth in that piece or this case is a genuine mistake that needs correcting?

[Paulenrique]

English Present Perfect is usually taken as simple past in Portuguese.

[emeyr]

This is a helpful analysis for present perfect translations:

http://www3.telus.net/linguisticsissues/presperfect.html

[Paulenrique]

You would use the present tense here: eu não como frango desde sábado. Não comi frango sábado passado (last Saturday).

[Danmoller]

After many of those "present perfect" discussions, I've come up to this:

http://www.duolingo.com/comment/1483888?from_skill=0d4273bb5ba2d0dedb95127796e1e909

[gaih]

So "Eu não comi frango desde sábado." might be passable also but not present tense, right? Thanks again!

[daniel87359]

Does "não comi" work here?

[julioc182]

could it be "eu não como frango desde o sábado" ?

[Paulenrique]

No, it does not apply here.

[ytseangito]

Is it incorrect to replace "ter" for "haver" in the past participle?

[Paulenrique]

In constructions where you have ter/haver, ter is far more common. But the present perfect in English is translated as simple past in Portuguese.

[G.P.Niers]

Can someone explain why it must be ‘como’ (present) rather than some other tense?

[Paulenrique]

When you have the words "since" or "for" (present perfect tense), if is translated as the present tense in Portuguese.

[JoymiMelenciano]

Could it be eu não como frango desde no sabado?

[Paulenrique]

no, "no" does not work here

• eu não como frengo desde sábado - I have not eaten chicken since Saturday

• eu não como frango no sabado - I do not eat chicken os Saturdays.