Provavelmente amanhã o jornal vai falar sobre a reunião importante.

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Questions & Answers about Provavelmente amanhã o jornal vai falar sobre a reunião importante.

Why does the sentence start with Provavelmente amanhã? Can I move these words to other positions?

Yes, you can move provavelmente (probably) and amanhã (tomorrow) around quite freely. The sentence

Provavelmente amanhã o jornal vai falar sobre a reunião importante.

is perfectly natural, but so are:

  • Amanhã o jornal provavelmente vai falar sobre a reunião importante.
  • O jornal provavelmente vai falar sobre a reunião importante amanhã.
  • O jornal vai provavelmente falar sobre a reunião importante amanhã. (a bit more formal/bookish)

Some notes:

  • Putting provavelmente at the beginning gives it emphasis: Probably, tomorrow the newspaper will talk…
  • Brazilians very often put time expressions like amanhã either at the beginning or at the end of the sentence:
    • Amanhã o jornal vai falar…
    • O jornal vai falar… amanhã.

All of these are grammatically correct; word order here is mostly about rhythm and emphasis, not correctness.

Why is vai falar used instead of the simple future falará?

In Brazilian Portuguese, the “going to” future (ir + infinitive) is much more common in everyday speech than the synthetic future.

  • vai falar = “is going to talk / will talk”
  • falará = “will talk”

Both are grammatically correct, but:

  • vai falar sounds natural, conversational, and is used most of the time in Brazil.
  • falará sounds more formal, written, or sometimes a bit stiff/old-fashioned in spoken Brazilian Portuguese.

So:

  • O jornal vai falar sobre a reunião importante. ✅ very normal
  • O jornal falará sobre a reunião importante. ✅ correct, but more formal/literary
Could I just use the present tense fala instead of vai falar to talk about the future?

Yes, in Portuguese the present tense can also refer to scheduled or expected future events, similar to English:

  • Amanhã o jornal fala sobre a reunião importante.

This suggests something like a planned or scheduled item (similar to English “Tomorrow the newspaper talks about the important meeting” when referring to a schedule or column).

Nuance:

  • vai falar – neutral future: “will talk”, “is going to talk”
  • fala (amanhã) – can sound more like it’s on the program/already decided, especially in contexts like TV schedules, events, etc.

Both are acceptable; vai falar is the safer default.

Why is it falar sobre a reunião importante and not falar de or just falar a reunião importante?

In Portuguese, when you say “talk about something,” you normally use:

  • falar sobre
    • thing
  • or falar de
    • thing

In this sentence:

  • falar sobre a reunião importante = to talk about the important meeting

Details:

  • falar sobre is very clear and explicit: “talk about.”
  • falar de is also very common and often interchangeable:
    • O jornal vai falar da reunião importante. (de + a = da)
  • You cannot say falar a reunião importante in this sense. falar
    • direct object is used for things like falar a verdade (tell the truth), not for “talk about [topic].”

So the most natural options here are:

  • falar sobre a reunião importante
  • falar da reunião importante
Is there any difference between sobre a reunião importante and da reunião importante?

Both can mean “about the important meeting,” but there are some nuances:

  • sobre a reunião importante

    • Very clear, slightly more neutral/formal.
    • Focuses on the topic: “about the important meeting.”
  • da reunião importante ( = de + a reunião importante)

    • Extremely common in speech.
    • Can feel a bit more compact and colloquial.
    • Still usually means “about the important meeting,” especially after falar.

In many everyday contexts:

  • O jornal vai falar sobre a reunião importante.
  • O jornal vai falar da reunião importante.

are interchangeable, and both are natural in Brazilian Portuguese.

Why is it o jornal and not just jornal or um jornal?

Portuguese uses definite articles (o, a, os, as) more than English does.

  • o jornal = the newspaper (a specific one: e.g., a certain newspaper people already know about, or “the” paper in your city)
  • um jornal = a newspaper (some newspaper, not specifically identified)
  • Bare jornal with no article is much more restricted than in English and would usually be wrong here.

In everyday speech, when you say:

  • O jornal vai falar sobre…

people will understand it as “the news outlet (newspaper / newscast) will cover this story”, often referring to the main or local paper or even a TV news program.

Does jornal always mean a physical newspaper, or can it mean a TV news program too?

In Brazilian Portuguese:

  • jornal literally means “newspaper.”
  • But in everyday speech, o jornal can also mean a TV news program (a newscast).

Examples:

  • Vou assistir ao jornal.
    = I’m going to watch the news (on TV).

So in your sentence:

  • o jornal vai falar sobre a reunião importante
    could mean:
    • “the newspaper will talk about the important meeting,” or
    • “the TV news will talk about the important meeting,”

depending on context.

Why doesn’t importante change form? Shouldn’t it agree in gender and number?

Importante is an adjective that has only one form for masculine and feminine in the singular:

  • reunião importante (feminine singular)
  • relatório importante (masculine singular)

For the plural, it becomes importantes for both genders:

  • reuniões importantes (feminine plural)
  • relatórios importantes (masculine plural)

So agreement works like this:

  • Gender and number are shown by the noun (reunião vs. reuniões).
  • Importante/importantes only change with number, not with gender.
Can I put amanhã at the end of the sentence, like in English?

Yes. All of these are correct:

  • Provavelmente amanhã o jornal vai falar sobre a reunião importante.
  • O jornal vai falar sobre a reunião importante amanhã.
  • Amanhã o jornal vai falar sobre a reunião importante.

Typical patterns in Brazilian Portuguese:

  • Time expression at the beginning: very common and natural.
  • Time expression at the end: also common, especially in speech.

So “… sobre a reunião importante amanhã” sounds perfectly natural.

What’s the difference between Provavelmente o jornal vai falar… and É provável que o jornal vá falar…?

Both express probability, but they differ in structure and nuance:

  1. Provavelmente o jornal vai falar sobre a reunião importante.

    • Uses the adverb provavelmente
      • normal future.
    • Very common and conversational.
    • Structure: [Adverb] + [future tense].
  2. É provável que o jornal vá falar sobre a reunião importante.

    • Uses the expression é provável que
      • present subjunctive of ir () + infinitive.
    • More formal/structured; often used in writing, news reports, or careful speech.
    • Shows the subjunctive triggered by é provável que.

Meaning-wise, both indicate that it is likely the newspaper will talk about the meeting. The first is simpler and more common in everyday conversation.