Breakdown of Nós ficamos de montar o guarda-roupa no sábado, depois da faxina.
nós
we
no sábado
on Saturday
depois de
after
ficar de
to agree to
Questions & Answers about Nós ficamos de montar o guarda-roupa no sábado, depois da faxina.
Why does ficamos de mean we agreed to / we said we’d here?
In Brazilian Portuguese, ficar de + infinitive is a very common expression meaning:
- to agree to do something
- to plan to do something
- to say you’ll do something later
So Nós ficamos de montar o guarda-roupa... means something like:
- We agreed to assemble the wardrobe...
- We said we’d put the wardrobe together...
It does not literally mean we stayed to here. This is an idiomatic use of ficar.
Other examples:
- Ficamos de conversar amanhã. = We agreed to talk tomorrow.
- Ele ficou de me ligar. = He said he’d call me.
Why is ficamos in the past if the action happens on Saturday?
Because ficamos de refers to the moment when the agreement was made, not the moment when the action will happen.
So the timeline is:
- first: we agreed
- later: we will assemble the wardrobe on Saturday
That is why Portuguese uses ficamos here. In English, we often do the same idea with:
- We agreed to assemble...
- We said we’d assemble...
The assembling is still in the future, but the agreement is already in the past.
Why is montar in the infinitive?