Do you want to learn the Portuguese Personal Infinitive?

It's so easy to use and it will make a huge difference in the way you express yourself in Portuguese!

Boas!

Portuguese Personal Infinitive is one of those grammatical structures that you must have at hand and use when you speak or write in Portuguese, and it's so easy...

As far as I know, Portuguese is the only Latin-based language using it, but the good news is, there is an equivalent in English for that.

Let me explain:

Portuguese Personal Infinitive is no more than the infinitive itself (and I mean the actual verb name like Falar, Comer, Ser, Abrir, etc). However, it can be personalised.

So, the way you do it is like this:

1. First define what verbal person you want to use (Eu, Tu, Ele, Nós, Eles, etc.). Please note that with the 1st and 3rd persons you don't nedd to ad any more letters or endings to the verb.

2. Pay attention to what expressions and contexts you can use it with.

What I mean by that is...

Let's put it this way:

The Portuguese Personal Infinitive is used:

A) With expressions like:

É necessário... (It's necessary...)
É bom... (It's good that)
É importante... (It's important that...)
É difícil... (It's difficult...)
É possível... (It's possible that...)
É provável... (It's probable that...)
Não é mau... (It's not bad...), etc.

Examples:

É ncessário eu ir ao supermercado hoje. (It's necessary that I go to the supermarket today).

É bom tu ires ao supermercado hoje. (It's good for you to go to the supermarket today).

É importante o senhor ir rapidamente ao médico. (It's important for you sir, to go to the doctor as soon as possible).

É difícil irmos ao cinema hoje. (It's difficult for us to go to the cinema today).

É possivel eles irem ao cinema hoje. (It's possible that they go to the cinema today).

Did you understand?

Please note that with these expressions you cannot use the word "que" (that) after the expression you are using (e.g. É importante que...), because if you do use the word "que", you need to use the subjunctive, and not the Portuguese Personal Infinitive.

The Portuguese Personal Infinitive is a form that you can use to avoid the use of the subjunctive in a large number of cases. So how cool is that?

B) Another situation where you use the Personal Infinitive is after prepositions like:

Ao... (at/by)
Sem... (without)
Para... (in order to)
Por... (because/for the cause of)
Até... (until/up to the point that)
No caso de... (in case)
Depois de... (after)
Antes de... (before)
Apesar de... (despite/inspite of)

So, supose you have a verb (any verb). Following these cases you must use the Portuguese personal Infinitive like this:

Person / Verb Para = In order for me/you/him, etc	Falar	Comer	Abrir	Ter
Para eu	falar	comer	abrir	ter
Para tu	falares	comeres	abrires	teres
Para ele Para ela Para você Para o senhor Para a senhora Para a gente Para uma pessoa	falar	comer	abrir	ter
Para nós	falarmos	comermos	abrirmos	termos
Para eles Para elas Para vocês Para os senhores Para as senhoras	falarem	comerem	abrirem	terem

Now, more good news! As I said before, in some cases there is an equivalent form in English for that. That form is very often the ending "...ing" in English.

Say for instance you want to say in Portuguese:

"Without studying we cannot speak Portuguese well."

"Sem estudarmos não podemos falar bem português."

or

"You won't go to work for being ill."

" Tu não vais trabalhar por estares doente.

And that's it. The Portuguese personal infinitive is this easy.

So now, do some exercises and go out and practise this rule with your Portuguese speaking friends.

Enjoy.

Tchau! Até breve!

Rafa

PS: If you have any questions about this page, please do feel free to ask me by clicking here .

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