Eles viram um filme longo ontem.

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Breakdown of Eles viram um filme longo ontem.

• o filme: the movie
• ver: to see
• eles: they
• ontem: yesterday
• longo: long

Questions & Answers about Eles viram um filme longo ontem.

Why do we use Eles instead of Elas?

In Portuguese, Eles is the masculine or mixed-gender plural pronoun, while Elas is exclusively feminine. If you’re talking about a group that’s entirely female, you’d use Elas, but if it’s a group of men or a mixed group, Eles is correct.

What does viram mean here?

In this sentence, viram is the past tense (pretérito perfeito) of the verb ver (“to see”). So, here it means “(they) saw.” It’s used to express a completed action in the past.

Is viram ever confusing because it also comes from vir (“to come”)?

Yes, the same spelling viram can be the past tense of both ver (“to see”) and vir (“to come”). The distinction is made through context. When you see “Eles viram um filme,” it clearly comes from ver because you “see” a film.

Why is the adjective longo placed after filme?

In Portuguese, it’s common for adjectives to come after the noun. Adjectives can appear before the noun too, but placing them after is often the neutral or most common choice. In this case, um filme longo is a natural way to say “a long movie.”

Can we put ontem somewhere else in the sentence?

Yes, ontem (meaning “yesterday”) can come at different places, like the beginning or after the subject, for example: Ontem, eles viram um filme longo or Eles ontem viram um filme longo. However, putting it at the end is very common and sounds quite natural in Portuguese.