Greek to Portuguese in Portugal: two years ago is not two years of an ongoing situation
The interval is measured from an event or through a situation
Greek πριν από δύο χρόνια means two years ago, locating an event in the past. Greek εδώ και δύο χρόνια can describe a situation continuing for two years. Portuguese há expressions can participate in both kinds of account, but the surrounding verb and clause establish whether the message dates an event or describes an ongoing interval.
Ciberdúvidas explains elapsed-time expressions through examples of meeting somebody a number of months ago and not seeing somebody for a number of years. A literal equation between one Greek preposition and one Portuguese time word misses that difference. The relevant question is what happened during, or at the edge of, the measured interval.
Arrived two years ago and have lived here for two years
An original Greek comparison is Ήρθα πριν από δύο χρόνια, I arrived two years ago, versus Μένω εδώ και δύο χρόνια, I have lived here for two years. The first reports an arrival; the second describes a continuing residence. They may be compatible facts about the same person, but they are not the same assertion.
In Portuguese, the interval expression needs to work with the chosen arrival or residence verb. A translation that preserves two years but changes ongoing residence into a completed stay can imply that the person has moved away. The source verb and time phrase must therefore be read together.
The same issue affects absence. Δεν τον έχω δει εδώ και δύο χρόνια says that the speaker has not seen him for two years. It does not report one meeting two years in the future or claim that a particular meeting lasted two years. The negative situation occupies the interval; the years are not the duration of a single encounter.
A past reference point allows another target choice
Carlos Rocha’s Ciberdúvidas answer discusses há and havia with an interval related to a past situation. It accepts havia and also reports a tendency in Portugal to use há in these environments. An editor should not condemn every Portuguese há beside a past main verb as a mistranslation without examining that documented usage.
For Greek τότε, at that time, a narrative may shift its reference point away from today. A person had already been waiting for two years when a reply arrived. That statement measures waiting up to the narrative event, not automatically up to the present date. The target must preserve the reference point even when Portuguese permits variation in the interval expression.
Greek πριν already gives the backward relation in πριν από δύο χρόνια. Portuguese normative advice discourages adding atrás to a há expression merely to reproduce an extra source element. This is a writing recommendation about an already backward-looking construction, not a claim that speakers never use the combination.
A source sentence with two years later introduces the opposite temporal relation: an interval after an event already mentioned. It should not acquire há simply because a nearby paragraph used two years ago. Establish whether the interval looks backward from now, backward from a past scene, or forward from a stated event before choosing the Portuguese expression.
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