Up to this point, most grammar you have studied builds a single clause: one subject, one verb, one idea. Complex grammar is what happens when you start gluing clauses together — when "It rained" and "I stayed home" become "If it rains, I'll stay home," and "She said something" and "She'd come" become "She said she'd come." This group covers the sentence-combining and discourse-level machinery of Brazilian Portuguese. It is where the subjunctive, the conditional, the future subjunctive, and the personal infinitive all interact, and it is precisely the territory that separates an intermediate speaker from an advanced one.
Why "complex" is the right word
A complex sentence (in the grammatical sense) contains at least one subordinate clause — a clause that depends on a main clause and cannot stand alone. Se chover ("if it rains") is not a sentence by itself; it needs a main clause to lean on. The whole of this group is about how Brazilian Portuguese builds, links, and sequences these dependent clauses, and what verb forms each link demands.
The reason these topics are hard is not that any single rule is complicated. It is that the rules interact. Choosing the verb in the se-clause forces a verb in the main clause; reporting someone's speech shifts every tense one step back; a relative pronoun changes shape depending on what it points to. Mastering complex grammar means learning to manage several moving parts at once.
What is uniquely Brazilian here
Most of Brazilian Portuguese's complex grammar matches the other Romance languages closely. Relative clauses, comparatives, and concessive clauses work much as they do in Spanish, French, or Italian. But two features stand out as distinctive, and both live in this group:
- The future subjunctive (futuro do subjuntivo) — a fully alive, obligatory tense in Brazilian Portuguese that Spanish has all but lost. It is mandatory in open conditionals about the future: Se chover, não vou ("If it rains, I won't go"). English has no separate form for it at all.
- The personal (inflected) infinitive — an infinitive that carries a personal ending: para irmos ("for us to go"), antes de eles chegarem ("before they arrive"). No other major language inflects the infinitive this way; even Spanish lacks it.
Se você precisar de alguma coisa, é só me ligar.
If you need anything, just call me. — future subjunctive 'precisar' in an open conditional
É melhor a gente sair agora para chegarmos na hora.
We'd better leave now so we arrive on time. — personal infinitive 'chegarmos'
The map: what is in this group
Here is the terrain, organized by what each topic does for you.
Conditional clauses (se-clauses)
The heart of the group. Brazilian Portuguese distinguishes three kinds of conditional, each with its own verb pairing:
| Type | Frame | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Open / real | se + present or future subjunctive → present/future | Se chover, eu fico em casa. |
| Present contrary-to-fact | se + imperfect subjunctive → conditional | Se eu tivesse tempo, viajaria. |
| Past contrary-to-fact | se + pluperfect subjunctive → conditional perfect | Se eu tivesse sabido, teria ligado. |
Start with Open Conditionals and Present Contrary-to-Fact Conditionals; the se-clauses overview ties the subjunctive side together.
Se eu fosse você, eu não comprava esse carro.
If I were you, I wouldn't buy that car. — present contrary-to-fact, with the colloquial imperfect indicative 'comprava' for the conditional
Reported (indirect) speech
Turning someone's words into a report shifts tenses backward and adjusts pronouns, time words, and places: "Eu vou amanhã" becomes Ele disse que ia no dia seguinte. See Reported Speech: Overview.
Ela disse que estava cansada e que ia dormir cedo.
She said she was tired and was going to sleep early. — reported speech with backshifted tenses
Relative clauses
Clauses that modify a noun, introduced by que, quem, o qual, cujo, onde. They let you pack a description into a single sentence: o livro que você me emprestou ("the book you lent me"). See Relative Clauses: Overview.
A mulher que mora ao lado é médica.
The woman who lives next door is a doctor. — restrictive relative clause
Cleft and focus structures
Brazilian Portuguese loves splitting a sentence to spotlight one element: Foi o João que quebrou o vaso ("It was João who broke the vase"). The é que construction is everywhere in speech: Onde é que você mora? See Cleft Sentences.
Foi ontem que eu soube da notícia.
It was yesterday that I found out the news. — cleft sentence focusing the time
Adverbial subordinate clauses
Clauses of cause (porque, já que), purpose (para que, para + infinitive), result (tão... que), concession (embora, mesmo que), and time (quando, antes que, depois que). Many of these select the subjunctive, and several interact with the future subjunctive: quando chegar, not quando chega.
Embora estivesse cansado, ele terminou o relatório.
Although he was tired, he finished the report. — concessive clause with subjunctive
Comparison, ellipsis, and absolute constructions
The finishing touches: comparatives (mais... do que, tão... quanto), ellipsis (leaving out repeated material), and absolute constructions (terminada a reunião, saímos) that compress a whole clause into a participle. These are mostly upper-intermediate to advanced.
Ele trabalha mais do que eu imaginava.
He works more than I imagined. — comparative structure
How the verb systems collide here
The reason complex grammar deserves its own group is that three verb systems you learned separately now have to cooperate:
- The subjunctive marks subordinate clauses that are non-factual — wishes, doubts, hypotheticals, and conditions. Conditionals, concessives, and purpose clauses all draw on it.
- The conditional is the natural main-clause partner of the imperfect subjunctive in hypotheticals (Se eu tivesse... compraria), and also reports a "future-in-the-past" in indirect speech.
- The future subjunctive governs open conditionals and time clauses about the future (se/quando + chover), a job no other tense can do.
A suggested learning order
You do not have to study these topics in manifest order. A productive path is:
- Open conditionals (A2) — Se chover, eu fico. The future subjunctive starts here.
- Present contrary-to-fact (B1) — Se eu tivesse, compraria. The hypothetical workhorse.
- Relative clauses (B1) — packing descriptions into one sentence.
- Reported speech (B1–B2) — backshifting tenses.
- Cleft sentences (B2) — focusing and emphasis.
- Adverbial clauses, comparison, ellipsis, absolutes (B2–C2) — the advanced layer.
Common Mistakes
These are the cross-cutting errors that show up across the whole group — each is treated in detail on its own page, but recognizing the pattern early helps.
❌ Se eu teria dinheiro, comprava uma casa.
Incorrect — the conditional 'teria' cannot go in the se-clause; it belongs in the main clause.
✅ Se eu tivesse dinheiro, compraria uma casa.
If I had money, I'd buy a house. — imperfect subjunctive in the se-clause.
❌ Quando eu chego em casa, te ligo. (intending a specific future)
Incorrect for a specific future event — needs the future subjunctive.
✅ Quando eu chegar em casa, te ligo.
When I get home, I'll call you. — future subjunctive 'chegar' for the future.
❌ Ela disse que ela vai chegar tarde. (reporting a past statement)
Incorrect tense — a past report backshifts the future to 'ia'.
✅ Ela disse que ia chegar tarde.
She said she'd arrive late. — backshifted tense in reported speech.
❌ O homem quem mora aqui é meu tio.
Incorrect — 'quem' is not used as the subject of a restrictive clause about a person; use 'que'.
✅ O homem que mora aqui é meu tio.
The man who lives here is my uncle. — 'que' for restrictive relatives.
Key Takeaways
- Complex grammar is about combining clauses, and its difficulty comes from the interaction of rules, not any single one.
- Brazilian Portuguese's two standout features — the future subjunctive and the personal infinitive — both live in this group and have no clean English equivalent.
- In conditional and time clauses, the subordinate verb dictates the main verb: choose the frame first.
- Work outward from open and contrary-to-fact conditionals; they introduce the verb interactions that every later topic reuses.
Now practice Portuguese
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Start learning Portuguese→Related Topics
- Open Conditionals (Real If-Clauses)A2 — Real, possible if-clauses in Brazilian Portuguese — present indicative for habits and the obligatory future subjunctive (se chover) for specific future conditions.
- Contrary-to-Fact Conditionals (Present)B1 — Present hypotheticals in Brazilian Portuguese — se + imperfect subjunctive + conditional (Se eu tivesse dinheiro, compraria), and the colloquial swap of conditional for imperfect indicative (comprava).
- Reported (Indirect) Speech: OverviewB1 — How to turn someone's exact words into a report in Brazilian Portuguese — the reporting verbs dizer/falar que and perguntar se, plus the pronoun, time, and place shifts that come with changing perspective.
- Relative Clauses: OverviewA2 — What relative clauses are in Brazilian Portuguese — clauses that modify a noun using que, quem, onde, o qual, or cujo — and the key split between restrictive (no commas) and non-restrictive (commas) clauses.
- Cleft Sentences: É... Que...B1 — How Brazilian Portuguese puts one element in focus with the é/foi ... que frame, including pseudo-clefts and the everyday invariable é que.
- Subjunctive in 'Se' (If) ClausesB1 — The three types of se-clause in Brazilian Portuguese and the mood each one selects — plus the critical difference between se meaning 'if' and se meaning 'whether'.