Breakdown of Eu vou devolver o livro antes da próxima reunião.
eu
I
o livro
the book
ir
to go
antes de
before
Questions & Answers about Eu vou devolver o livro antes da próxima reunião.
Why does Portuguese use vou + infinitive (e.g. vou devolver) to express the future?
Portuguese uses the near-future construction: the verb ir (to go) conjugated + infinitive. It corresponds to English “I am going to return.” This is the most common way in spoken Brazilian Portuguese to talk about future actions. There is also a synthetic future tense (e.g. devolverei), but it’s more formal and rarely used in everyday conversation.
Can I drop the subject pronoun Eu and just say Vou devolver o livro antes da próxima reunião?
Yes. Portuguese is a pro-drop language, so the subject pronoun can often be omitted because the verb ending already indicates the person. Vou devolver… is perfectly natural and actually more common in informal speech.
What’s the difference between devolver, entregar, and retornar when talking about the book?
- Devolver: to give something back to its owner (to return an object).
- Entregar: to hand over or deliver something (you could say it if you’re “delivering” the book to a library, for example).
- Retornar: to return in the sense of coming back yourself; you wouldn’t use it for returning objects.
Why do we say antes da próxima reunião instead of antes de a próxima reunião?