Caminhado

Caminhado is the past participle of the Portuguese verb caminhar, meaning to walk. It is used to form compound tenses with auxiliary verbs such as ter or haver, as in ele tem caminhado (he has walked) or ela havia caminhado (she had walked). When used as an adjective, caminhado describes something that has been walked or traversed, and it agrees in gender and number with the noun it modifies (for example, o caminho caminhado, as trilhas caminhadas).

Etymology and morphophonology: caminhar is a regular -ar verb, and its past participle follows the standard -ado suffix pattern. Caminhado thus shares a common formation with other Portuguese participles derived from -ar verbs, such as falado from falar or trabalhado from trabalhar. In practice, caminhado maintains the sense of completed walking action when used with auxiliary verbs and can function descriptively as an attribute.

Usage notes: In contemporary Portuguese, caminhar is often expressed with the gerund caminhando to emphasize ongoing action ( estou caminhando ), while the perfect aspect uses caminhar’s past participle ( tenho caminhado ) to indicate a completed or experiential action. The participle can also appear in adjectival positions, where it must agree with the noun it modifies (o trajeto caminhado, as trilhas caminhadas). In many contexts, synonyms such as percorrido or recorrido may be preferred for describing routes that have been walked.

Related terms: Caminhada is a related noun meaning a walk or hike (the act of walking), and caminhante is a walker. Caminhado should not be confused with andado, the past participle of andar, which is the more common verb for “to walk” in everyday speech in some dialects.