Word
Se o colchão não couber, vamos tirar a cadeira para abrir espaço no quarto.
Meaning
If the mattress does not fit, we are going to remove the chair to make room in the bedroom.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Lesson
Breakdown of Se o colchão não couber, vamos tirar a cadeira para abrir espaço no quarto.
não
not
para
to
ir
to go (future auxiliary)
se
if
Questions & Answers about Se o colchão não couber, vamos tirar a cadeira para abrir espaço no quarto.
Why is the verb couber instead of caber or cabe?
Because couber is the future subjunctive form of caber.
In Portuguese, after se when you are talking about a possible future situation, Brazilian Portuguese usually uses the future subjunctive:
- Se o colchão não couber... = if the mattress doesn’t fit...
- Se ele vier... = if he comes...
- Se chover... = if it rains...
So:
- caber = infinitive, to fit
- cabe = present, it fits
- couber = future subjunctive, used here after se
This is one of the most important patterns to learn, because English does not have a separate form like this.
Is caber an irregular verb?
Yes. Caber is irregular, and that is why the form couber may look surprising.
Some useful forms are:
- caber = to fit
- cabe = it fits
- coube = it fit / it fitted
- cabia = it used to fit / would fit
- caberá = it will fit
- couber = if it fits / when it fits in a future sense
So couber is not built in a simple regular way from the infinitive. It is a form you basically need to recognize and memorize.