Breakdown of Você estudaria outra matéria se tivesse mais tempo e mais exemplos?
Questions & Answers about Você estudaria outra matéria se tivesse mais tempo e mais exemplos?
Estudaria is in the conditional tense (in Portuguese, futuro do pretérito do indicativo).
Here it expresses a hypothetical action: something you would do under certain conditions.
- Você estudaria = You would study
It doesn’t mean “you used to study” (that would be você estudava) and it’s not a simple future (you will study = você estudará).
Tivesse is the imperfect subjunctive (pretérito imperfeito do subjuntivo), and it’s used because the sentence is hypothetical / unreal.
The pattern for this type of conditional in Portuguese is:
- Se
- imperfect subjunctive
- main clause in the conditional
So:
- Se tivesse mais tempo… você estudaria…
If you had more time, you would study…
Using se tinha would sound like you’re talking about a real, repeated situation in the past, not a hypothetical one, and it doesn’t fit this meaning.
No. In standard Portuguese you don’t use the conditional (teria) after se in this kind of hypothetical sentence.
Correct patterns:
- Se tivesse mais tempo, estudaria outra matéria.
- Estudaria outra matéria se tivesse mais tempo.
Incorrect for this meaning:
- ✗ Se teria mais tempo, estudaria outra matéria.
In Brazilian Portuguese, você grammatically behaves like ele/ela (3rd person singular), even though it means “you”.
So:
- Você tem (not você tens)
- Você teria
- Se você tivesse
In your sentence, the subject of tivesse is understood to be você, even though it isn’t repeated:
- Você estudaria… se (você) tivesse mais tempo…
Yes. Both are correct:
- Você estudaria outra matéria se tivesse mais tempo…
- Você estudaria outra matéria se você tivesse mais tempo…
The second one explicitly repeats você, which can make the subject even clearer, but it’s not necessary here because the context makes it obvious.
Yes. Word order is flexible here:
- Você estudaria outra matéria se tivesse mais tempo e mais exemplos.
- Se tivesse mais tempo e mais exemplos, você estudaria outra matéria.
Both are natural. Changing the order does not change the meaning.
In this context, matéria means school/college subject or course, like:
- matéria de matemática – math (as a subject)
- minha matéria favorita é história – my favorite subject is history
So outra matéria here is more like “another subject / another course”, not “matter” in the sense of physical matter or a topic of discussion.
Alternatives with slightly different feels:
- disciplina – more formal/academic word for “course/subject”
- assunto – “topic, subject matter” (not usually a class).
Because adjectives like outro/outra must agree in gender and number with the noun.
- matéria is feminine singular → outra matéria
- curso is masculine singular → outro curso
- matérias (feminine plural) → outras matérias
So outra matches matéria (feminine).
You could say mais tempo e exemplos, but it sounds a bit less natural and a little ambiguous: does mais apply to both nouns or just the first?
By repeating mais, you make it absolutely clear that you’re talking about two separate “more” quantities:
- mais tempo (more time)
- mais exemplos (more examples)
So mais tempo e mais exemplos is the most natural and clear form.
You can say mais tempo e mais exemplo, but exemplos in the plural is more natural here.
Plural is typically used because:
- We usually need several examples when learning something.
- “More examples” in English also suggests more than one.
Use singular when you really mean just one:
- Se tivesse mais um exemplo… – If you had one more example…
Yes, they express different things.
- Você estudaria – conditional, hypothetical
- You would study (if some condition were true).
- Você estudava – imperfect past, habitual or ongoing past
- You used to study / You were studying.
In your sentence we need a hypothetical idea (would study), so estudaria is the correct choice.
You can omit você:
- Estudaria outra matéria se tivesse mais tempo…
This is grammatically correct and common in Portuguese, because verb endings often show who the subject is. However, estudaria is the same form for eu and ele/ela/você, so without context it could be:
- I would study another subject…
- He/She/You would study another subject…
Including você removes that ambiguity.
You only need to change você to eu; the verbs stay the same in form:
- Eu estudaria outra matéria se tivesse mais tempo e mais exemplos.
→ I would study another subject if I had more time and more examples.
The form estudaria is the same for eu and você, and tivesse also stays the same. The subject is understood from context and pronoun.
Approximate pronunciation (Brazilian):
estudaria → es-tu-da-RI-a
- IPA: /is.tu.da.ˈɾi.a/
- Stress on -ri-: es-tu-da-RIA
tivesse → chi-VE-se (the ti sound often becomes “chi” in Brazil)
- IPA: /tʃi.ˈvɛ.si/ (common Brazilian realization)
- Stress on -ve-: ti-VE-sse
Linked together in speech, you might hear something like:
- Você estudaria outra matéria se tivesse mais tempo…
→ vo-SE es-tu-da-RI-a o-tra ma-TÉ-ria si chi-VE-se mais TÊM-po…
Yes. It sounds natural, neutral, and polite.
Using the conditional (estudaria) makes the question softer and more hypothetical, rather than direct:
- Você estudaria… se tivesse…?
→ Suggests curiosity or a gentle suggestion: “Would you (maybe) study… if…?”
It’s completely appropriate in everyday conversation, in class, or in a casual survey-type context.