Breakdown of Nós podemos ajudar vocês a praticar agora, se quiserem.
agora
now
querer
to want
poder
to be able to
nós
we
Questions & Answers about Nós podemos ajudar vocês a praticar agora, se quiserem.
Why is vocês used instead of você in this sentence?
In Brazilian Portuguese, vocês is the standard way to address a group of people (the plural “you”). Você is singular, so if you’re talking to more than one person, you say vocês.
Why does it say ajudar vocês a praticar and not ajudar vocês praticam?
The verb ajudar is followed by the preposition a plus the infinitive form of the action being helped with. In Portuguese, the standard structure is ajudar + alguém + a + infinitivo. So you get ajudar vocês a praticar rather than something like ajudar vocês praticam.
Could we say ajudar vocês a praticarem instead of ajudar vocês a praticar?
Yes, because Portuguese allows for the personal infinitive (where the infinitive verb agrees with the subject). Praticar (impersonal infinitive) is perfectly acceptable and very common in everyday speech, but praticarem (personal infinitive) would also be correct if you want to emphasize that vocês are the ones practicing.
What tense is quiserem here?
Quiserem is the future subjunctive form of querer. Portuguese uses the future subjunctive after certain words like se (if) when talking about events that might happen in the future. So se quiserem means “if you (plural) want” in a possible future context.