I am reading the section on conjunctions, why is the infinitive used, ex vamos pedir a comida quando ele chegar
@lorraineg2011, I suppose youāre talking about chegar. Even though it looks just like the infinitive, it is actually conjugated in the future subjunctive (third-person singular). Many verbs look just the same in both cases, so itās understandably difficult to know if they are conjugated or not.
Ah, I havenāt got to the subjunctive yet. Thanks for the speedy reply.
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How interesting, we were just having a discussion about a very similar case - its great having your imput to resolve our differences of opinion! Lorraineās example is saying āwe are going to order food when he will arriveā - although in english we say when he has arrived, making it seem like it is an event in the past, but spoken of in the future ? Is that right? I am trying to train myself not to do direct translations from english but learn constructions as they are said in Portuguese - it isnāt always easy!
Happy to help, @andrew! Yes, the sentence has a clear future outlook. And in fact, there are two ways we can word it:
- Weāre going to order food when he arrives (simple present) ~ Vamos pedir a comida quando ele chegar (simple future subjunctive)
- Weāre going to order food when he has arrived (present perfect) ~ Vamos pedir a comida quando ele tiver chegado (compound future subjunctive)
The first option is the most usual.
Thank youfor your nice precise explanation. It really helps to make one feel relaxed speaking when you are confident it is the correct form.
Tem uma boa semana.
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Could I ask about this phrase: They had already left before I arrived. I think āchegarā is used here. Does this count as future, also? The chegar/cheguei thing has been driving me mad. Iāve only just seen this information here.
@je.woody Yes, chegar is used. But in that sentence, youāre looking at the infinitive 
Thanks for the reply but Iām still confused. Why the infinitive and not cheguei?
@je.woody Iām afraid I donāt have a much better answer than āitās how the language worksā! Itās one of those cases where verb tenses donāt align between English and Portuguese. So, even though we say ābefore I arrivedā in English, we canāt say āantes de eu chegueiā in Portuguese. The structure āantes deā asks for the infinitive (simple or compound):
- Eles/elas jĆ” tinham partido antes de eu chegar (infinitive, simple)
- Eles/elas jĆ” tinham partido antes de eu ter chegado (infinitive, compound)