Word
Se ela tivesse mastigado com calma, não teria ficado com dor ao engolir e ao mexer o queixo.
Meaning
If she had chewed calmly, she would not have ended up with pain when swallowing and moving her chin.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Lesson
Breakdown of Se ela tivesse mastigado com calma, não teria ficado com dor ao engolir e ao mexer o queixo.
não
not
ter
to have
com
with
e
and
Questions & Answers about Se ela tivesse mastigado com calma, não teria ficado com dor ao engolir e ao mexer o queixo.
Why is the sentence Se ela tivesse mastigado..., não teria ficado... instead of a more direct past tense?
This pattern expresses an unreal past condition: something that did not happen, and a result that did not happen because of it.
- Se ela tivesse mastigado com calma = If she had chewed calmly / more carefully
- não teria ficado com dor = she would not have ended up in pain
This is the Portuguese equivalent of the English third conditional:
- If she had chewed more carefully, she wouldn’t have been in pain.
So the sentence is talking about a hypothetical past situation, not a real event sequence.
What exactly is tivesse mastigado grammatically?
Tivesse mastigado is the pluperfect subjunctive.
It is formed with:
- tivesse = imperfect subjunctive of ter
- mastigado = past participle of mastigar
Together, they mean had chewed in a hypothetical or contrary-to-fact situation.
This tense is very common after se in unreal past conditions:
- Se eu tivesse estudado... = If I had studied...
- Se eles tivessem saído... = If they had left...