Nós perdemos o jogo porque chegamos tarde.

We lost the game because we arrived late.

Breakdown of Nós perdemos o jogo porque chegamos tarde.

• porque: because
• nós: we
• chegar: to arrive
• tarde: late
• perder: to lose
• o jogo: the game

Questions & Answers about Nós perdemos o jogo porque chegamos tarde.

What does perdemos mean here, and how can I tell if it’s past or present tense?

perdemos is the first-person plural of perder (“to lose”) in both simple present (we lose) and simple past (we lost). In this sentence it’s past, because of the logical sequence: you can only lose a game when it’s over, and “we arrived late” refers to a completed action. Context (and often adverbs or other verbs) tells you it’s pretérito perfeito.

What does chegamos mean, and how do I know it’s past tense?

Like perdemos, chegamos can be present (“we arrive”) or simple past (“we arrived”). Here it’s past, because you can only say “we lost the game because we arrive late” in a completed sense. The causal link (losing happened after arriving late) signals pretérito perfeito.

Why is there an o before jogo? Do I always need a definite article?

Portuguese commonly uses the definite article before nouns even where English omits it. o jogo literally means “the game.” You use o when you’re talking about a specific game (the one you just played). If you’re speaking in general you still often say o jogo, but you could say um jogo (“a game”) if you mean any unspecified game.

Why include the subject pronoun nós? Can it be dropped?

Portuguese is a pro-drop language: the verb ending often makes the subject clear. You can say simply Perdemos o jogo porque chegamos tarde. Speakers include nós for emphasis or contrast (“we, in particular, lost”) or clarity if the ending might be ambiguous.

Why is porque written as one word? Aren’t there other forms like por que?

Portuguese has four forms:

• porque (one word) = conjunction “because”
• por que (two words) = “why” in questions or “for which”
• por quê (with accent) = “why” at end of a question
• porquê (noun) = “the reason”

Here we need the causal conjunction porque (“because”).

Can I start the sentence with the cause, like Porque chegamos tarde, nós perdemos o jogo?

Yes. Portuguese allows inversion:

• Because-first: Porque chegamos tarde, nós perdemos o jogo.
• Effect-first (original): Nós perdemos o jogo porque chegamos tarde.
  When the subordinate clause comes first, you typically add a comma.

What’s the difference between saying chegamos tarde and chegamos atrasados?

• tarde is an adverb (“late” in terms of time).
• atrasados is an adjective (“late” describing the people).

Both are correct:

• chegamos tarde focuses on the time of arrival.
• chegamos atrasados emphasizes that we ourselves were late.

Could I also say perdemos o jogo por chegarmos tarde or por termos chegado tarde? What’s the nuance?

Yes.

• por chegarmos tarde (“for our arriving late”) uses the infinitive with gerundive sense.
• por termos chegado tarde (“because we had arrived late”) uses the perfect infinitive.
  Both are more formal/explicit; everyday speech prefers the conjunction porque
  • indicative.

How do I pronounce perdemos and chegamos? Where’s the stress?

By default, words ending in vowel or s stress the penultimate syllable if unaccented.

• per-DÊ-mos (stress on DE)
• che-GA-mos (stress on GA)

Each has three syllables: per-de-mos, che-ga-mos.

In Brazilian Portuguese, can I use a gente instead of nós?

Yes. Informally, Brazilians often say a gente perdeu o jogo porque chegou tarde.
Note the verb then conjugates in third-person singular: perdeu, chegou instead of perdemos, chegamos.