Editorial Opinion Piece (B2)

Portuguese editorial writing sits squarely in the formal register — more restrained than American op-eds, more rhetorical than British leaders, but with the same three-part architecture: diagnose the problem, acknowledge the counterargument, propose a direction. For the B2 learner, editorials are exceptionally useful reading material. They compress the subjunctive, the se-passive, the future subjunctive, impersonal constructions, and nominalised abstractions into short, self-contained arguments you can read in five minutes and re-read for grammar practice.

This page presents an original editorial about the Lisbon housing crisis — a topic that has been on the front page of Público, Diário de Notícias, and Expresso constantly in recent years — and then walks through the grammatical scaffolding that makes it sound editorial and not conversational.

The text

A casa como direito, não como mercadoria

Importa que os cidadãos se apercebam, de uma vez por todas, da gravidade do problema. Em Lisboa, como em várias capitais europeias, discute-se há anos a possibilidade de regular o mercado habitacional — e, ano após ano, adiam-se as decisões que poderiam, de facto, alterar o curso das coisas. É urgente que se tomem medidas concretas. Não basta que se fale de habitação nos debates parlamentares; exige-se que se legisle, e que se legisle bem.

Os números falam por si. Nos últimos dez anos, os preços das rendas na capital subiram mais de setenta por cento, enquanto os salários, esses, mal acompanharam a inflação. Com efeito, é cada vez mais difícil que uma família de classe média consiga arrendar um T2 na cidade onde trabalha. Regista-se, por conseguinte, uma deslocação massiva da população ativa para os concelhos limítrofes, com custos sociais e ambientais que raramente são contabilizados no debate público.

Há quem defenda que basta deixar funcionar o mercado, que o problema se resolverá por si, que qualquer intervenção seria contraproducente. Seria conveniente, porém, que essa linha de argumento se confrontasse com a realidade dos dados. Em cidades onde se impuseram limites claros às rendas — Berlim, Barcelona, Viena, em graus diferentes — os efeitos foram mistos, é certo, mas nada indica que a inação produza melhores resultados. Em última análise, deixar o mercado resolver sozinho o que o mercado provocou equivale a confiar a raposa com a guarda do galinheiro.

Enquanto não houver consenso político em torno de medidas estruturais — regulação de plataformas de alojamento local, impostos progressivos sobre imóveis devolutos, investimento sério em habitação pública —, a crise agravar-se-á. Quando os eleitores perceberem que nenhuma das soluções fáceis funciona, talvez venha então a coragem política. Mas nessa altura, para muitos jovens portugueses, já será tarde de mais. Não obstante todas as promessas, sem prejuízo das boas intenções, para além das comissões parlamentares que se multiplicam, importa que se actue — e que se actue agora.

Grammar in action

Let's go through the machinery that holds this piece together. The numbered sections correspond to the order in which each feature appears.

1. Subjunctive after evaluative and necessity predicates

The opening sentence sets the tone: Importa que os cidadãos se apercebam. The verb apercebam is in the present subjunctive, triggered by importa que ("it matters that / it is important that"). Portuguese uses the subjunctive after a tight family of predicates that express evaluation, necessity, emotion, doubt, and will:

The rule: evaluative predicate + que + subjunctive. This includes é importante, é necessário, é urgente, é essencial, é conveniente, é difícil, é possível, é pena, é melhor, basta, importa, convém, exige-se. The opposite side — predicates that assert a fact — takes the indicative: é verdade que, é claro que, é óbvio que, é evidente que. The dividing line is whether the speaker is asserting reality or evaluating a non-reality.

Note also the contrast between é claro que (indicative, factual) and é necessário que (subjunctive, evaluative). Portuguese is strict about this: é claro que vem ("it is clear that he's coming") is a different kind of sentence from é importante que venha ("it is important that he come"), and the subjunctive marks the difference.

2. Se-passive and agreement: discute-se, adiam-se, tomem-se, regista-se, impuseram-se

Portuguese has two passive constructions. The ser-passive (as medidas foram tomadas) is structurally identical to English passives. The se-passive (tomam-se as medidas) is the one that editorial writers lean on heavily, and it has a subtle rule that trips up many learners: the verb agrees in number with the patient, not with an implied "it".

The agreement rule is hard-wired into formal Portuguese. Discutem-se soluções (plural), not discute-se soluções. Regista-se uma tendência (singular), not registam-se uma tendência. The se is not a subject — it is a marker that the agent is generic or suppressed; the real grammatical subject is the noun phrase, and the verb agrees with it.

3. Future subjunctive in protases: enquanto não houver, quando os eleitores perceberem

The editorial closes with two future subjunctives in protases (conditional/temporal clauses):

These two verbs — houver (from haver) and perceberem (from perceber) — are in the future subjunctive, a tense that exists in Portuguese and Spanish but has died out in most other Romance languages. French, Italian, and Catalan no longer have it. Portuguese not only kept it but still uses it constantly, in everyday speech as well as in writing.

The future subjunctive is triggered by:

• Temporal conjunctions pointing to the future: quando, logo que, assim que, enquanto, sempre que
• Conditional se pointing to the future (in Portuguese, se
  • future subjunctive, not se
    • present indicative): se quiseres, se puderes, se for preciso
• Relative clauses with a hypothetical antecedent: o que vier, quem precisar, onde estiver

English uses the present indicative here (when the voters realise, as long as there is no consensus, if you have time). Portuguese demands the future subjunctive. If you use the present indicative where Portuguese expects the future subjunctive, you will sound foreign — not wrong, exactly, but foreign.

4. Imperfect subjunctive in counterfactuals

The editorial uses the imperfect subjunctive in the concessive section:

The pattern is conditional + que + imperfect subjunctive. This is a softer, more hypothetical structure than é conveniente que se confronte (present conditional + present subjunctive, which would be more direct). By shifting both verbs into the unreal register, the writer signals: this is not what's happening; this is what should happen.

Compare:

• É urgente que se tomem medidas. (present: strong, immediate demand)
• Seria urgente que se tomassem medidas. (imperfect: more distant, less commanding)
• Seria necessário que se investisse mais. (hypothetical necessity — "one would need to invest more")

5. Formal connectors as genre markers

Editorial writing relies on a distinctive set of connectors that rarely appear in conversation. The passage uses:

Two spelling notes. Under AO90, de facto keeps its c (because it is pronounced), while atual, atualidade lose the mute c that pre-AO90 spelling had (actual, actualidade). However, actuar / actue has been a point of some inconsistency — current PT-PT norm under AO90 writes atuar, atue, but older spellings survive in many publications; you will see both. The passage uses actue reflecting persistent pre-reform usage; modern edited PT-PT would usually write atue.

6. Nominalisation

The editorial leans heavily on noun phrases instead of verbs. Instead of "they decide things" you get as decisões. Instead of "the prices grew" you get o crescimento dos preços (or in the passage, the equivalent os preços subiram). Instead of "people have moved" you get uma deslocação massiva. Instead of "laws are passed" you get legislação.

This nominalised style allows the writer to pack information tightly, to remain impersonal, and to sound authoritative. It is one of the defining features of formal written Portuguese. The same content in conversational Portuguese would be expressed with verbs: As pessoas deslocam-se para os concelhos à volta; seria bom regular o mercado; deviam taxar as casas vazias e investir em habitação pública. Both versions mean roughly the same thing. Only the first sounds editorial.

7. The thesis-concession-reaffirmation structure

The three body paragraphs follow the classic argumentation pattern:

• Thesis (paragraph 1): The problem is urgent; it is time to legislate.
• Evidence (paragraph 2): Prices have risen; salaries have not kept up; displacement is a real cost.
• Concession + reaffirmation (paragraph 3): Some argue for laissez-faire; is certo que the evidence is mixed; but inaction is not a better answer.

The concession is signalled by Há quem defenda que... ("there are those who argue that..."), which is a softly hedged way to introduce the opposing view without endorsing it. The reaffirmation is signalled by porém and em última análise. This pattern — acknowledge, qualify, refute — is the backbone of persuasive writing in Portuguese. Once you recognise it, you can build your own editorials on the same scaffold.

8. The closing turn: agravar-se-á

The penultimate paragraph ends with a mesoclitic future: a crise agravar-se-á. This is mesoclisis in action — the reflexive se slips inside the future tense because there is no proclisis trigger in the clause.

In spoken PT-PT you would hear a crise vai agravar-se (periphrastic future + enclitic reflexive). The editorial writer chooses the literary mesoclitic form because it is more compact, more formal, and more final. You will see mesoclisis much more often in op-eds and analytic pieces than in news reports.

Things to notice

Impersonal voice throughout

The editorial never uses eu or nós as a clear first-person subject. It speaks through importa que, exige-se, regista-se, discute-se, seria conveniente, há quem. This is deliberate — editorials in PT-PT tend to speak with an impersonal institutional voice, even when the piece is signed. The author is presenting themselves as a spokesperson for reasonable opinion, not as an individual.

The subjunctive saturation

Count the subjunctives in the piece: se apercebam, se tomem, se fale, se legisle, consiga, se confrontasse, produza, houver, perceberem, venha, se actue, se actue. Twelve subjunctives in under 300 words. That density is typical of editorial writing — every time the author says importa que, seria conveniente, enquanto não, quando, é difícil que, nada indica que, é urgente que, a subjunctive follows.

The arc of verb tenses

The piece moves through several tense layers:

1. Present subjunctive for the urgent calls to action (se tomem, se legisle, se actue)
2. Preterite for the historical facts (subiram, acompanharam)
3. Imperfect subjunctive for the hypothetical (se confrontasse, tivessem, pudesse)
4. Future subjunctive for the pending conditions (houver, perceberem)
5. Future (with mesoclisis) for the consequence (agravar-se-á)
6. Conditional for tempered recommendations (seria conveniente, seria contraproducente)

This is not ornament. Each tense does a specific job: urgency, evidence, hypothesis, projection, recommendation. The reader moves through these modal layers without the writer needing to say "I believe" or "it is my opinion".

Common mistakes when imitating this register

Key takeaways

For deeper practice, see Subjunctive after Impersonal Predicates, Future Subjunctive, Se-Passive, and Formal Connectors.