Nós ficamos de desmontar o móvel velho antes de o entregador voltar.

we

Breakdown of Nós ficamos de desmontar o móvel velho antes de o entregador voltar.

• antes de: before
• velho: old
• voltar: to come back

Questions & Answers about Nós ficamos de desmontar o móvel velho antes de o entregador voltar.

What does ficamos de + infinitive mean in this sentence?

It is an idiomatic structure. Ficar de + infinitive often means to agree to, to say you will, to arrange to, or to be supposed to do something.

So Nós ficamos de desmontar o móvel velho means something like We agreed to take apart the old piece of furniture or We said we would take it apart.

It does not mean the literal we stayed here.

Why is ficamos in the past tense if the dismantling may happen later?

Because the agreement/decision happened in the past.

Ficamos is the pretérito perfeito of ficar. It marks a completed past event: at some point, we agreed or we made the arrangement. The action of desmontar can still be in the future relative to that agreement.

So the timeline is:

• first: we agreed
• later: we would dismantle the furniture
• all of that: before the delivery person returns

Is ficamos de the same as combinamos de?