Vou modelar uma peça.

I am going to model a piece.

Breakdown of Vou modelar uma peça.

• um: a
• ir: to go
• a peça: the play
• modelar: to shape a soft material by hand

Questions & Answers about Vou modelar uma peça.

What tense is vou modelar?

It is the near future construction in Portuguese: ir + infinitive.

• vou = I go / I am going (1st person singular of ir, to go)
• modelar = to model / to shape / to sculpt

So vou modelar means I’m going to model.

This is extremely common in everyday Portuguese, just like I’m going to... in English.

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Why is there no eu in the sentence?

Portuguese often drops the subject pronoun when it is already clear from the verb.

• vou already tells you the subject is I
• so (eu) vou modelar uma peça and vou modelar uma peça both mean the same thing

Including eu is possible, but it usually adds emphasis, contrast, or clarity.

For example:

• Eu vou modelar uma peça, não tu. = I’m going to model a piece, not you.

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What exactly does modelar mean here?