Nós ficamos de fazer outra faxina quando o guarda-roupa e o colchão já estiverem no lugar.

to be

Breakdown of Nós ficamos de fazer outra faxina quando o guarda-roupa e o colchão já estiverem no lugar.

• e: and
• nós: we
• fazer: to do

Questions & Answers about Nós ficamos de fazer outra faxina quando o guarda-roupa e o colchão já estiverem no lugar.

What does ficamos de fazer mean in this sentence?

Ficar de + infinitive is a very common expression in Brazilian Portuguese. It means something like:

• to agree to do
• to arrange to do
• to say that we would do

So Nós ficamos de fazer outra faxina means we agreed to do another cleaning or we said we’d do another cleaning.

This is not the literal idea of to stay or to remain, even though ficar often has those meanings in other contexts.

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Why is it ficamos and not ficaremos or vamos ficar?

Ficamos is the preterite form of ficar, so it refers to a completed action in the past: the agreement was made already.

Here, the sentence is talking about two times:

1. Past: Nós ficamos de fazer... = we made the agreement.
2. Future: quando ... estiverem no lugar = when the wardrobe and mattress are in place.

So the structure is:

• first, we agreed
• later, we will do the cleaning

If you said ficaremos, it would mean we will agree, which changes the meaning.

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