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- Gestora Sénior: Caros colegas,
- tenho notícias terríveis para vos dar…
- O microondas morreu!
- É importante sermos fortes neste momento difícil
- e estarmos unidos como sempre.
- Gestor Júnior: Não, não!
- Não sei como é possível termos força
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apagarto turn off, put out, extinguish, delete o apoiosupport aquecidoheated aquihere specific cansadotired ChegaEnough colegascolleagues, peers os coraçõeshearts deixarto let, to allow, to leave something doentesick dolorosopainful o elementoelement a empresacompany equipateam o espaçospace esquecerto forget esquecidoforgotten estagiáriotrainee, intern FortesStrong a forçaforce, strength, power gestormanager, administrator gestoramanager female o lugarplace, seat melhorbetter, best memóriamemory o micro-ondasthe microwave morrerto die as notíciasnews, news broadcasts pazpeace possívelpossible quandowhen supervisorasupervisor terríveisterrible tragédiatragedy unidosunited a verdadetruth
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Truly absurd! Great pun at the end!
Bahahahaha!! 🙂
After what I found to be a very difficult series of units on this tense I found the Tragedia almost impenetrable although I did spot early that it was a joke even though the whole thing seemed so formal..
It was enough to almost make me give up. But I won’t.
I think that I will use a different tense to express . What do you suggest.
Agree. This is a really tough tense to get my English head around.
It is hard to write this, as I can barely see through my tears–I am laughing so hard!
You guys are brilliant at humor like this!
Absolutely brilliant! 🙂
Muito obrigado!
These personal infinitives have come as a shock. How come I never noticed them before?! They seem to complicate things unnecessarily. I think it’s going to take a while for me to get my head round them (when to use them and how). I just don’t understand the logic behind them.
Anyway, I’ll stop complaining and just accept them as something that presumably you eventually get used to … through practice!
Hi Alison, you may have already seen this, but you can read about personal infinitives in more detail here: Infinitivo Impessoal vs Pessoal. These are tough, but you’re right, it will eventually get easier with practice. This topic in particular is one where it’s difficult to explain the difference, but if you see enough examples, it will start to make more sense. 🙂
One way you could think of it is that the impersonal form (just the regular form of the verb in the infinitive, like dançar) is used when you are talking about the action in a more general way, without a specific person being referenced (“É bom dançar” – It’s good to dance) or when the person was already indicated by the other associated verb in the sentence (“Queres comer em casa”).
The personal form (with the endings added, such as dançarem) is also used when talking about the action in a sort of general way, but the difference is that the focus is on a specific person doing that action (“É bom eles dançarem” – It’s good for them to dance).
Thank you, Molly. I think I’m just struggling with how to file this one in my brain in such a way that I’ll know where to locate it when needed.
At the moment, I’ve got it vaguely situated somewhere in the region of the subjunctive tense (which I know through learning French) — e.g. “É bom eles dançarem” – It’s good that they dance” — but I’ll see how it all turns out with more practice. I also keep wanting to add “que/de” when they’re not needed (probably a habit from French).
This particular requirement of the language does seem unnecessarily cruel but I will keep trying!
In the meantime, the lesson that followed, on ser/estar, was like a bit of light relief after struggling with this one
Hello and thank you for the explanations regarding the use of personal infinitive. I would very much like whether it would be advisable to use the subjunctive instead (like we do in French). For example “é importante (que ou se?) sejamos (formos?) fortes” instead of “é importante sermos fortes” like is found in the dialogue. Thank you, that would help a lot, Marie Hélène
Olá, Marie and thank you too for your comment. You could definitely use the subjunctive instead of the personal infinitive. In this case, only the present subjunctive fits, so you should say “É importante que sejamos fortes” 🙂
Thanks for that answer, Joseph – it’s a relief to know I can use the present subjunctive as well, as this really is a difficult grammatical construction. As a Spanish speaker, the subjunctive makes perfect sense but it will take time for the personal infinitive to make sense, too. I understand how it works and can do the exercises just fine but incorporating it into conversation is the hardest part! Thanks to all of you for making it so easy and fun to learn Portuguese grammar 🙂
Yes, I suppose the subjunctive is the lesser of two evils, so feel free to use it in place of the personal infinitive anytime you need – it’s a very useful workaround 😉 Thank you too for your kind comment, by the way!
Such hidden acting talent :).
I think we have an uncredited role here with Joel as “supervisora”, não é? What’s up with that?
And, shouldn’t that be “o supervisor “?
I’m happy to represent all of you as um agente de talentos.
Haha good ear, that’s indeed yours truly! Thanks for that correction, we must have had the role as a female before realizing when recording we were short on female voices 🙂 (Fixed!)
Marvellous – best to learn through humour!
Wowww you guys!! Hahaha. Excellent. I agree with others here – this is a tough lesson to wrap my head around, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in any other language I’ve studied. But it does make a lot of sense to separate personal vs. impersonal infinitives. Thanks for a great unit!
Bonjour les jeunes,
Je ne sais pas pour les autres apprenants, mais j’ai trouvé cette leçon très difficile, je ne décourage pas pour autant!
Maritimement.
André
What a fun shortie. Well done!
Is it more common for a native Portuguese speaker to use the personal infinitive rather than the subjunctive? Or do they use them interchangeably? Or would using the subjunctive sound overly formal?
Thank you for your excellent work.
Thanks for your comment! 🙂
Both the personal infinitive and the subjunctive are extensively used by native speakers. In cases where they’re interchangeable, I would say that the personal infinitive tends to be used more, if only because the subjunctive is wordier (and also more formal-sounding due to that). For example, “É importante sermos fortes e estarmos unidos…” becomes “É importante que sejamos fortes e estejamos unidos…”. There are also many instances where they’re not really interchangeable, and each has their specific uses. For example, only the personal infinitive fits in the sentence “Obrigado por me fazeres comer tão bem…”.