Question 1

What does recolher mean in Nós recolhemos as flores do jardim? How is it different from colher or apanhar?

Accepted Answer

- recolher means “to gather” or “to collect,” often implying you pick up things that were scattered or you collect items systematically.  
- colher literally means “to harvest” or “to pick” (fruits, flowers) in a more agricultural sense.  
- apanhar can mean “to catch” (e.g. a ball) or “to pick” something casually (like fruit), and is more colloquial.  
In this sentence, recolher sounds a bit more formal or methodical than apanhar, though all three verbs could be used to express “we picked the flowers.”

Question 2

Is recolhemos in the present tense or the past tense?

Accepted Answer

The verb form recolhemos serves for both:  
- Present indicative: “we gather”  
- Preterite (simple past): “we gathered”  
You distinguish them by context or by adding a time marker, for example:  
“Isto fazemos sempre: Nós recolhemos as flores de manhã.” (present)  
“O nosso trabalho ontem: Nós recolhemos as flores.” (past)

Question 3

How do you pronounce recolhemos, and where is the stress?

Accepted Answer

In European Portuguese, recolhemos is pronounced roughly “reh-KOL-yeh-moosh.”  
- Phonetic key: [ʁɨˈkɔʎəmʊʃ]  
- The stress falls on the second syllable: col.

Question 4

Why is the subject pronoun nós used here? Can we omit it?

Accepted Answer

Portuguese is a “pro-drop” language, so you can omit nós because the verb ending -mos already shows first-person plural.  
- With pronoun: Nós recolhemos… (for emphasis or clarity)  
- Without pronoun: Recolhemos as flores do jardim. (more common in casual speech)

Question 5

Why is there a definite article as before flores? Could it be omitted?

Accepted Answer

Portuguese often uses definite articles with nouns when you talk about specific or known items.  
- as flores = the flowers (those specific flowers in the garden)  
If you want to speak generically or indefinitely, you can say:  
- Recolhemos flores (we pick/gather flowers in general)  
- Recolhemos algumas flores (we picked some flowers)

Question 6

What is the contraction do in do jardim?

Accepted Answer

do = de + o, where:  
- de means “from/of”  
- o is the masculine singular definite article “the”  
So do jardim literally means “from the garden.”

Question 7

Why is it do jardim and not no jardim? What’s the difference?

Accepted Answer

- do jardim (de + o jardim) = “from the garden,” indicating the origin of the flowers.  
- no jardim (em + o jardim) = “in the garden,” indicating location.  
Thus:  
- Nós recolhemos as flores do jardim. → We took the flowers that belong to the garden (we removed them from there).  
- Nós recolhemos as flores no jardim. → We gathered/picked the flowers while we were in the garden.

Question 8

Why does as flores do jardim come after the verb? Could you say “Nós do jardim recolhemos as flores”?

Accepted Answer

The normal order in Portuguese is Subject-Verb-Object, and within the object noun phrase the noun precedes its modifiers:  
- [Nós] [recolhemos] [as flores do jardim].  
You can front the PP do jardim for emphasis (“Do jardim, nós recolhemos as flores”), but that structure is less neutral and more marked or poetic.

Nós recolhemos as flores do jardim.

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