Word
Se a papinha ficar fria, eu vou esquentar de novo antes do próximo cochilo.
Meaning
If the baby food gets cold, I am going to heat it up again before the next nap.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Lesson
Breakdown of Se a papinha ficar fria, eu vou esquentar de novo antes do próximo cochilo.
eu
I
frio
cold
ir
to go (future auxiliary)
se
if
Questions & Answers about Se a papinha ficar fria, eu vou esquentar de novo antes do próximo cochilo.
Why is it se a papinha ficar fria and not se a papinha fica fria?
Because after se when you are talking about a possible future situation, Portuguese normally uses the future subjunctive.
- ficar here = future subjunctive
- fica = present indicative
So:
- Se a papinha ficar fria... = if the baby food gets/is cold
- Se a papinha fica fria... sounds wrong for this kind of future condition in standard Portuguese.
This is a very common pattern:
English does not have a special form here, but Portuguese does.
Why is the verb ficar used here instead of ser or estar?
Ficar often means to become or to end up in a state.
So:
- ficar fria = to become cold / to get cold
That is why it works well in this sentence: the baby food is not cold yet, but it may become cold.
Compare:
- A papinha está fria. = The baby food is cold.
(describes its current state) - A papinha ficou fria. = The baby food got cold / became cold.
- Se a papinha ficar fria... = If the baby food gets cold...