Se faltar sal, você tem que comprar mais no supermercado.

If salt runs out, you have to buy more at the supermarket.

Breakdown of Se faltar sal, você tem que comprar mais no supermercado.

• você: you
• comprar: to buy
• se: if
• mais: more

Questions & Answers about Se faltar sal, você tem que comprar mais no supermercado.

Why is it faltar after se, not falta?

Because after se meaning if, Portuguese often uses the future subjunctive when talking about a possible future situation.

So:

• Se faltar sal... = If we run out of salt / If salt is lacking...

For many -ar verbs, the future subjunctive looks exactly like the infinitive, so faltar here is not the plain infinitive in meaning, even though it looks the same.

Compare:

• Falta sal. = There is no salt / Salt is missing.
• Se faltar sal... = If salt runs out / If there isn’t enough salt...

This is a very common pattern in Portuguese:

• Se chover... = If it rains...
• Se precisar... = If you need to...
• Se der tempo... = If there is time...

What does faltar mean in this sentence?

Here, faltar means something like:

• to be missing
• to be lacking
• to run out

So faltar sal is literally for salt to be lacking, but in natural English it usually becomes:

• if we run out of salt
• if there isn’t enough salt
• if salt is missing

A helpful thing to remember is that faltar often works differently from English. The thing that is missing becomes the grammatical subject:

• Falta sal. = Salt is missing / We need salt.
• Faltam duas cadeiras. = Two chairs are missing.