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LevelB1

Já Não É Possível Viver Sem…

It's Not Possible To Live Without...

Já Não É Possível Viver Sem…

It's Not Possible To Live Without...

Can Carla and Marcelo last the whole weekend without their cell phones?

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  • 00:00:03Carla e Marcelo são casados, e assistem juntos a um documentário sobre os perigos da internet. Carla and Marcelo are married, and together they watch a documentary about the dangers of the internet.
  • 00:00:13Sentados no sofá, conversam sobre o que acabaram de ver! Sitting on the couch, they talk about what they just saw!
  • 00:00:18Carla: Marcelo, temos mesmo de passar menos tempo online. Carla: Marcelo, we really have to spend less time online.
  • 00:00:22Marcelo: Sim, passamos a vida toda com os olhos pregados ao ecrã. Estamos sempre rodeados por computadores, telemóveis... Marcelo: Yes, we spend our lives with our eyes nailed to the screen. We're always surrounded by computers, cell phones...
  • 00:00:33Carla: Tu ainda tens sorte com o teu trabalho, que é muito manual! Carla: You're still lucky with your work, which is very manual!
  • 00:00:36Já eu trabalho no computador, passo as viagens de metro no telemóvel, enfim... I, on the other hand, work on the computer, I spend the metro trips on my cell phone, oh well...
  • 00:00:43Marcelo: Hoje em dia, já nem conseguimos ir até à casa de banho sem o telemóvel! Marcelo: Nowadays, we can't even go to the bathroom without a cell phone!
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Casadosmarried a chamadacall os computadorescomputers DocumentárioDocumentary o ecrãscreen o exemploexample a moradaaddress as novidadesnews, updates olhoseyes a perguntaquestion PerigosDangers pesquisarto research, search for, look into PregadosNailed RodeadosSurrounded seguirto follow semwithout SugestõesSuggestions os telemóveismobile phones tentarto try ViciadosAddicted vidalife
Expressions
pelo menosat least De repentesuddenly colocar a conversa em diato catch up Literal - to put the conversation up to date a não ser queunless combinadoscheduled, arranged, combined Hoje em diaNowadays, These days
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Comments

  • bom dia! A não ser que te apeteça ir jantar a um restaurante a que já tenhamos ido. why is it not “apetecas” because it’s te? and why it’s not tinhamos ido? because it’s talking about a restaurante they’ve been to, and that’s a fact happened already in the past, while conjuntivo presente talks about possibilities. Thanks for help!

    • Olá, Hana! “Apeteças” is not used because the subject of the sentence is not “tu”. The verb “apetecer” is being used impersonally, without subject, and “te” is its indirect object. Because of that, the verb isn’t conjugated in the second-person singular, “apeteças”.

      The second half of the sentence asks for the pretérito perfeito (simple past). It would be fine to use the pretérito perfeito do indicativo (…a um restaurante a que já fomos), but it is just as fine to use the pretérito perfeito composto do conjuntivo (…a um restaurante a que já tenhamos ido) because both refer to past events that are already concluded. “Tínhamos ido” wouldn’t make sense in this context, because this tense (pretérito mais-que-perfeito composto do indicativo) points to a “past before the past”, so to speak – it’s a different timeline that doesn’t fit here.

  • Hi, thanks so much for your reply. Ït’s clear and thorough. Can I just ask another further question?

    why is Marcelo using the impersonal in the sentence “‘a nao ser que te apeteca ir jantar…..”? Clearlly he’s refering to Carla, right?

    • You’re welcome! And sure, ask away. This is just how the verb apetecer works. When we want something, we become the indirect object of the verb and the thing we want is the direct object. For example: Apetece-me uma bebida. Direct object (what we want): uma bebida [a drink]. Indirect object (who wants it): -me [me/I]. In the dialogue, Marcelo is wondering if Carla wants to have dinner at a certain place, so Carla is the indirect object (te) and having dinner at X place is the direct object.

  • I am struggling with the expression “dava jeito” (1:36). This sentence and the reply seem to me to calling for the subjunctive (or conditional…..I struggle a lot with these tenses) but not the imperfect indicative, as used. The english translation uses ‘could’ and ‘would’ indicating possibility, a hypothetical. I’m confused! Thanks for your help and the fantastic site.

    • Olá! You are correct – this asks for the conditional 🙂 What you are seeing with “dava jeito” is just one of those cases where the imperfect indicative stands in as a ‘de facto’ conditional form. It’s quite common in informal speech to use the imperfect instead of the conditional because it feels less formal or stuffy, so to speak. The same happens when we say, for example, “Gostava de…” instead of “Gostaria de…”.

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