B1 Text: Short Opinion Essay

An opinion essay is built from two grammatical materials: claims, and the connectives that link them into an argument. At B1, written Brazilian argumentation strings its points with discourse markers — além disso (moreover), no entanto (however), por isso (therefore) — and triggers the subjunctive after evaluative frames like é importante que and é fundamental que. This page annotates an original short opinion text on public transport to show that scaffolding: how a Brazilian writer signals "I'm adding," "I'm contrasting," "I'm concluding," and how evaluation forces the verb into the subjunctive.

The text

An original opinion paragraph on urban transport:

Strip out the connectives — na minha opinião, além disso, no entanto, por isso, em resumo — and you are left with a pile of disconnected sentences. The connectives are what turn a list into an argument; learning them is learning to write opinion, not just to translate it.

Opinion frames: "na minha opinião", "acho que", "acredito que"

Every argument needs to mark whose view this is. Brazilian Portuguese has a ladder of opinion frames from casual to careful.

A key point for English speakers: when you assert your opinion as something you believe to be true, acho que and acredito que take the indicative (acho que é, acredito que tem), because you are stating it as your reality. The subjunctive only enters when you doubt or negate the belief: não acho que seja ("I don't think it is"), duvido que seja ("I doubt it is"). This is the opposite of the instinct many learners develop — "opinion = subjunctive" is wrong; it is negated or doubted opinion that flips to the subjunctive.

The subjunctive after evaluation: "é importante que", "é fundamental que"

This is the signature subjunctive of written opinion. Impersonal evaluative expressions — é importante que, é fundamental que, é necessário que, é preciso que — all force the following verb into the present subjunctive.

The logic is the same as everywhere the subjunctive lives: when you say it is important that X happen, X is not yet a fact — it is something you judge ought to be true. Portuguese marks that unrealized, value-laden status with the subjunctive. English barely does — formal English keeps a fossil ("it is important that the government invest," not invests), but most speakers don't feel it, which is why learners write é importante que o governo investe (indicative) by mistake. In Portuguese the subjunctive here is alive and obligatory.

A conditional sentence: "deixaria o carro... se fosse confiável"

The text argues hypothetically: muita gente deixaria o carro se o ônibus fosse confiável ("people would leave the car if the bus were reliable"). This is the classic second-conditional pattern for an unreal or unlikely present situation.

The structure is se + imperfect subjunctive (fosse, houvesse) in the condition, and the conditional (deixaria, andaria) in the result. It maps almost perfectly onto English "if... were... would..." — the fosse is "were," the deixaria is "would leave." The one thing learners drop is the subjunctive in the se-clause: it must be se fosse, never se era. After se for an unreal condition, Portuguese demands the imperfect subjunctive.

Discourse connectives: the joints of the argument

Now the heart of B1 argumentation — the connectives that signal each logical move. The text uses one of each major type:

Group them by function and they become a toolkit:

• Addition: além disso (moreover), ademais (formal), também (also).
• Contrast / concession: no entanto / porém / contudo (however), por outro lado (on the other hand), embora
  • subjunctive (although).
• Consequence: por isso (therefore), portanto (thus), então (so, more (informal)).
• Conclusion: em resumo / em suma (in short), por fim (finally).

Note the register split: porém, contudo, portanto, and ademais are markedly more (formal)/(academic) than mas, então, and também. A well-written B1 opinion text mixes them deliberately — no entanto and por isso read as polished without being stiff.

Parallel structure and correlatives: "tanto... quanto..."

Good argumentation often balances two ideas in matching grammatical shape. The closing line does this with a correlative:

Tanto... quanto... ("both... and...") requires the two halves to be parallel — here, two de-phrases (do governo, da sociedade). Keeping the structure symmetrical is what makes the sentence read as confident and "essay-like" rather than improvised. English does the same with "both... and...," so the instinct transfers; just remember the Portuguese pairing is tanto... quanto... (or tanto... como...), not tanto... e....

Vocabulary and expressions

• o poder público / o governo — the government / public authorities.
• a tarifa — the fare; acessível — affordable/accessible.
• não dá para... — "there's no way to / you can't..." (very common Brazilian impersonal).
• de braços cruzados — idiom: "with arms crossed," i.e., doing nothing.
• ter um papel a cumprir — to have a role to play.
• o cidadão / a cidadania — the citizen / citizenship.
• levar tempo — to take time.

Cultural and register note

This is (neutral/semi-formal) written register — the kind of text a student would produce for a school essay (redação) or a reader's comment in a newspaper. The Brazilian redação, especially the famous ENEM university-entrance essay, explicitly rewards exactly these features: a clear thesis, connectives that structure the argument (além disso, no entanto, por isso), and a proposed solution at the end that invokes shared responsibility (tanto do governo quanto da sociedade). That "shared responsibility" closing — government and citizens — is a recognizable rhetorical move in Brazilian civic writing. The subjunctive after é importante que / é fundamental que is a hallmark of this register; using the indicative there immediately marks the writer as a non-native or careless.

Common Mistakes

Key takeaways

• Affirmative opinion (acho que, acredito que) takes the indicative; only negated/doubted opinion flips to the subjunctive.
• Evaluative frames — é importante que, é fundamental que, é necessário que — always trigger the subjunctive.
• Unreal conditions use se + imperfect subjunctive (se fosse) with the conditional result (deixaria).
• Connectives are the joints of argument: além disso (add), no entanto (contrast), por isso (conclude); mind their register.
• The correlative tanto... quanto... ("both... and...") needs parallel structure on each side.