Choveu

Choveu is the Portuguese word used to indicate that rain occurred, and it is the third-person singular preterite form of the verb chover. In Portuguese, rain is commonly described with an impersonal verb, meaning the action does not require an explicit subject. Therefore, choveu functions as a weather statement, equivalent to “it rained.”

In typical usage, choveu appears with adverbs or time phrases to specify when and how long the rain lasted. Examples include “Choveu ontem,” “Choveu a noite inteira,” and “Choveu muito hoje.” The verb form can also be combined with other elements to convey nuance, such as “Choveu menos este mês” (it rained less this month). Portuguese also has an imperfect form, chovia, used to describe ongoing or habitual rain in the past, as in “Chovia quando cheguei” (It was raining when I arrived). For future rain, the ordinary forms are choverá or the periphrastic vai chover (it is going to rain).

Choveu is widely understood in both Brazilian and European Portuguese, where weather expressions frequently use impersonal constructions. Although rare, there are poetic or literary contexts in which a subject could be personified (for example, referring to a sky that rains as if it had a will), but such uses are stylistic rather than standard grammar.

See also chover, weather verbs, and impersonal verbs in Portuguese grammar.