Breakdown of É importante que o relatório seja feito antes da reunião.
ser
to be
antes de
before
importante
important
que
that
a reunião
the meeting
o relatório
the report
ser feito
to be made
Questions & Answers about É importante que o relatório seja feito antes da reunião.
Why is seja used instead of é (i.e., why the subjunctive)?
Because é importante que... is an expression of necessity/importance and it triggers the present subjunctive in the following clause. So you get que o relatório seja feito (subjunctive) rather than que o relatório é feito (indicative). In English you often use should or a “mandative” structure: It’s important that the report (should) be done....
What exactly is seja feito grammatically?
Seja feito is the present subjunctive of ser (seja) + past participle feito (from fazer). Together they form a passive voice: to be done / to be made.
Active equivalent: É importante que (alguém) faça o relatório... (It’s important that someone does/writes the report...).
Why use passive voice here instead of saying who does it?
Portuguese often uses the passive when the doer is unknown, irrelevant, or intentionally omitted. Que o relatório seja feito focuses on completion of the report, not on who does it. If you want to name the doer, you can add por: ...seja feito pelo João (...be done by João).
Could I replace this with an infinitive, like É importante fazer o relatório...?
Yes, if the subject is generic or understood (like “we/you/one”).
- É importante fazer o relatório antes da reunião. = It’s important to do the report before the meeting.
If you want to keep the “that + clause” structure (more formal/explicit), you use que + subjunctive: É importante que o relatório seja feito...
Why is it o relatório and not um relatório?
O relatório refers to a specific, known report (the one relevant to the meeting). Um relatório would mean a report in a more general/unspecified sense. In many workplace contexts, o relatório is natural because everyone knows which report is meant.
What does antes da mean, and why is there a contraction?
Antes de = before (doing something / before a noun phrase).
Here it’s followed by a reunião (the meeting). de + a contracts to da, so:
- antes de + a reunião → antes da reunião.
Why is it da reunião and not just de reunião?
Because reunião here is definite: it’s the meeting (a specific meeting). So you use the article a (feminine singular), which then contracts with de → da. If you were speaking generically, you might see something like antes de reuniões (before meetings), but that changes the meaning.
Is relatório always masculine, and reunião always feminine?
Yes: o relatório is masculine, a reunião is feminine. That’s why you have o with relatório, and a (→ da) with reunião.
Could I say É importante que o relatório esteja feito instead of seja feito?
It’s possible, but it’s different in nuance.
- seja feito focuses on the action being carried out (the report getting done).
- esteja feito focuses on the resulting state (the report being finished/ready).
In many contexts, seja feito is the more standard choice for “must be done.”
Is feito the same as fatto/hecho—why not use a regular past participle?
Feito is the irregular past participle of fazer (to do/make). Many common Portuguese verbs have irregular participles (e.g., escrever → escrito, ver → visto). You simply memorize them; you can’t form fazido in modern standard Portuguese.
How would I pronounce the key parts in Brazilian Portuguese?
A rough guide (varies by region):
- É importante: /eh im-por-TAN-chi/ (final -te often sounds like -chi)
- que: /kee/
- relatório: /he-la-TO-ryu/ (initial r often like an English h)
- seja: /SE-zhah/
- reunião: /he-oo-nee-ÃO/ (nasal -ão, like a nasalized “ow”)
Can the word order change—like putting antes da reunião earlier?
Yes. Portuguese is flexible with adverbial phrases like antes da reunião. For emphasis you can move it:
- É importante que, antes da reunião, o relatório seja feito. (more formal, with commas)
- Antes da reunião, é importante que o relatório seja feito. (fronting the time phrase for emphasis)
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