Learn how to recognize an implied subject in Portuguese
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Intro |
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| Michael: Is it common to omit the subject in Portuguese sentences? |
| Ana Clara: And why? |
| Michael: At PortuguesePod101.com, we hear these questions often. Consider this situation. Giovana Gomes is in a bookstore with her friend, Sasha Lee. She points to a book and says, |
| "Do [you] see that book over there?" |
| Giovana Gomes: Está vendo aquele livro ali? |
| Dialogue |
| Giovana Gomes: Está vendo aquele livro ali? |
| Sasha Lee: Qual? O vermelho? |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Giovana Gomes: Está vendo aquele livro ali? |
| Michael: "Do [you] see that book over there?" |
| Sasha Lee: Qual? O vermelho? |
| Michael: "Which one? The red one?" |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In the dialogue, we hear Giovana Gomes say: |
| Ana Clara: Está vendo aquele livro ali? |
| Michael: "Do [you] see that book over there?" |
| As she is speaking only to Sasha Lee, it's inferred that she refers to her. In this case, it's very common in Portuguese to omit the subject pronoun. So, the subject pronoun "you" or, in Portuguese: |
| Ana Clara: você |
| Michael: is not said by Giovana Gomes. If, instead, she included the subject pronoun, we'd have: |
| Ana Clara: Você está vendo aquele livro ali? |
| Michael: The subject pronoun omission is very common in Portuguese. It happens because the verb conjugation has specific endings according to whether it's first person, second person, or third person, and it also indicates the number (singular or plural), which makes it easy to identify what the subject pronoun is in each case. For example: |
| Ana Clara: Fizemos um acordo. |
| Michael: "(We) made a deal." |
| In the Portuguese sentence, the subject pronoun "we": |
| Ana Clara: Nós |
| Michael: was omitted. But it's easy to know which person, first, second, or third, the sentence refers to, as the verb "made" is conjugated for the plural first person in Portuguese, which is: |
| Ana Clara: fizemos |
| Michael: You can check out more about verb conjugation in the lessons we listed in the Lesson Notes PDF. |
| Now, if, instead, the subject pronoun was used in the sentence, we'd have: |
| Ana Clara: Nós fizemos um acordo. |
| Michael: "We made a deal." |
| Michael: Now let's take a look at our second sentence from the conversation. |
| Do you remember how Sasha Lee says "Which one? The red one?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Ana Clara: Qual? O vermelho? |
| Michael: In this case, as Giovana Gomes had already referred to "book" in her first question, when answering her, Sasha Lee avoids repeating the same word and just refers to a specific book she's looking at, "the red one." If, instead, she mentioned the word "book" again in her answer, we'd have: |
| Ana Clara: O livro vermelho? |
| Michael: "The red book?" |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you've learned that the subject pronoun is frequently omitted in Portuguese and that this is due to the fact that they can be easily inferred by checking out the conjugated verb in the sentence, which has a distinctive ending for the first, second, or third person. |
| Another situation is when the item which we refer to can be easily inferred from the subsequent sentences. |
| Now, let's look at some examples. Our first example is: |
| Ana Clara: Preciso estudar agora. |
| Michael: "[I] need to study now." |
| In this case, the subject pronoun "I," which in Portuguese is |
| Ana Clara: Eu, |
| Michael: Was omitted, as the conjugated verb has an ending that clearly infers the subject pronoun it refers to. So, "need": |
| Ana Clara: preciso |
| Michael: has the |
| Ana Clara: -O |
| Michael: ending that corresponds to the singular first person in the simple present form. |
| Our next example is: |
| Ana Clara: Nós já vimos todos os carros da loja. Você gostou daquele cinza? |
| Michael: "We've already seen all the cars in the store. Did you like that gray one?" |
| In this example, the first sentence already mentions "cars." Therefore, in the second sentence, it's inferred that the "gray one" refers to "gray car" as well and we can omit this word in the second statement in Portuguese. This makes the conversation more natural and fluid as well! |
| Expansion |
| Michael: And how about the opposite? In which situations do we want to make sure to include the subject pronoun in the sentence? Let's see some examples. |
| Ana Clara: Todo mundo quer ir à festa, mas eu não vou! |
| Michael: "Everybody wants to go to the party, but I won't go!" |
| When we want to stress or emphasize the subject, we include the subject pronoun in the sentence. In this example, the emphasis on the "I," which in Portuguese is: |
| Ana Clara: eu |
| Michael: shows the strong opinion of the speaker about not going to the party. |
| Michael: Let's look at another case: |
| Ana Clara: Se ele dissesse a verdade, todos ficariam surpresos. |
| Michael: "If he told the truth, everyone would be surprised." |
| In some cases, the conjugated verb for the singular first person "I" and singular third person "he" or "she" in Portuguese has the exact same form. In this example, "told" which, in the Portuguese sentence is in the imperfect subjunctive tense, is: |
| Ana Clara: dissesse, |
| Michael: which is the same for both persons of speech. Let's see it in more detail: |
| Here's the sentence for the singular first person of speech: |
| Ana Clara: Se eu dissesse a verdade, todos ficariam surpresos. |
| Michael: "If I told the truth, everyone would be surprised." |
| Now, the sentence for the singular third person of speech, for the masculine gender: |
| Ana Clara: Se ele dissesse a verdade, todos ficariam surpresos. |
| Michael: "If he told the truth, everyone would be surprised." |
| And what about the singular third person of speech, for the feminine gender? |
| Ana Clara: Se ela dissesse a verdade, todos ficariam surpresos. |
| Michael: "If she told the truth, everyone would be surprised." |
| You can see now why it's important to include the subject pronoun in this case! This will certainly avoid any confusion or misunderstanding. |
| Practice Section |
| Michael: Let's review. Respond to the prompts by speaking aloud. Then, repeat after Ana Clara focusing on pronunciation. |
| Do you remember how Giovana Gomes says "Do [you] see that book over there" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Ana Clara: Está vendo aquele livro ali? |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Ana Clara: Está vendo aquele livro ali? |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Ana Clara: Está vendo aquele livro ali? |
| Michael: And do you remember how Sasha Lee says "Which one? The red one?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Ana Clara: Qual? O vermelho? |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Ana Clara: Qual? O vermelho? |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Ana Clara: Qual? O vermelho? |
| Cultural Insight |
| Michael: In casual speech, you will probably notice not a subject pronoun omission or inclusion, but its colloquial form. Let's check it out: |
| Ana Clara: Sério!? Cê tá brincando? |
| Michael: "Really!? Are you kidding?" |
| Here the subject pronoun "you" is shortened to: |
| Ana Clara: cê |
| MIchael: a colloquial form of: |
| Ana Clara: você |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Ana Clara: Até a próxima! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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