Conjunctions and infinitive of verb

Portuguese Questions Grammar
1

I am reading the section on conjunctions, why is the infinitive used, ex vamos pedir a comida quando ele chegar

2

@lorraineg2011, I suppose youā€™re 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 itā€™s understandably difficult to know if they are conjugated or not.

3

Ah, I havenā€™t got to the subjunctive yet. Thanks for the speedy reply.

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4

How interesting, we were just having a discussion about a very similar case - its great having your imput to resolve our differences of opinion! Lorraineā€™s example is saying ā€œwe 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 isnā€™t always easy!

5

Happy to help, @andrew! Yes, the sentence has a clear future outlook. And in fact, there are two ways we can word it:

  • Weā€™re going to order food when he arrives (simple present) ~ Vamos pedir a comida quando ele chegar (simple future subjunctive)
  • Weā€™re 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.

6

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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7

Could I ask about this phrase: They had already left before I arrived. I think ā€˜chegarā€™ is used here. Does this count as future, also? The chegar/cheguei thing has been driving me mad. Iā€™ve only just seen this information here.

8

@je.woody Yes, chegar is used. But in that sentence, youā€™re looking at the infinitive :slight_smile:

9

Thanks for the reply but Iā€™m still confused. Why the infinitive and not cheguei?

10

@je.woody Iā€™m afraid I donā€™t have a much better answer than ā€œitā€™s how the language worksā€! Itā€™s one of those cases where verb tenses donā€™t align between English and Portuguese. So, even though we say ā€œbefore I arrivedā€ in English, we canā€™t say ā€œantes de eu chegueiā€ in Portuguese. The structure ā€œantes 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)