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Questions & Answers about Se o cantor chegar atrasado, o público esperará com paciência.
Why is the verb form after se in “Se o cantor chegar atrasado” the same as the infinitive (chegar) instead of the present subjunctive (chegue)?
Portuguese uses a special tense called the future subjunctive after conditional or temporal conjunctions (se, quando, assim que, etc.) to talk about hypothetical future events. For regular –ar verbs like chegar, the future subjunctive coincides morphologically with the infinitive (chegar). The form chegue is the present subjunctive, which is used in different contexts (e.g. when expressing doubt or desire about present situations), not for future “if” clauses.
How can I tell that chegar is functioning as the future subjunctive here and not just a simple infinitive?
The giveaway is the context and the conjunction se combined with a main clause in the future tense (“o público esperará”). When you see se introducing a future possibility, you automatically use the future subjunctive—even though it looks like the infinitive. In other contexts (after verbs like querer, desejar, etc.), chegar could be a plain infinitive, but here the condition + future meaning marks it as subjunctive.
Can I replace esperará with vai esperar or even use the present tense espera?
Yes. Portuguese gives you three common ways to express the future:
• Simple future (formal): “o público esperará…”
• Periphrastic future (colloquial): “o público vai esperar…”
• Present tense as future (common in speech): “o público espera…”
All three are grammatically correct:
“Se o cantor chegar atrasado, o público vai esperar com paciência.”
“Se o cantor chegar atrasado, o público espera com paciência.”
Why is it com paciência instead of using the adverb pacientemente?
European Portuguese often prefers the construction com + noun to express manner (e.g. com cuidado, com paciência). You can certainly say pacientemente, but com paciência is more idiomatic in many contexts.
What’s the difference between saying chegar atrasado, chegar com atraso, or chegar tarde?
All three convey “to arrive late,” but with slight stylistic differences:
• chegar atrasado: adjective atrasado modifies the subject.
• chegar com atraso: uses atraso as a noun with com.
• chegar tarde: uses tarde as an adverb.
In everyday speech chegar atrasado and chegar tarde are the most common.
Does atrasado have to agree in gender and number with the subject?
Yes. Since atrasado is an adjective, it must match the subject:
• “Se a cantora chegar atrasada…” (feminine singular)
• “Se os cantores chegarem atrasados…” (masculine plural)
Why do we include the definite articles o before cantor and público? Can they be omitted?
In European Portuguese, we generally use definite articles before nouns in specific or general statements. Omitting them (“Se cantor chegar atrasado…”) would sound ungrammatical or very awkward.
When exactly should I use the future subjunctive in Portuguese?
Use the future subjunctive after conjunctions that introduce conditions or future time references, such as se (if), quando (when), logo que (as soon as), depois que (after), assim que (as soon as), enquanto (while), etc. It’s unique to Portuguese and a few other languages.
How do I pronounce público, and why does it have an accent?
público is pronounced [ˈpu.bli.ku], with the stress on the first syllable. The acute accent on ú marks that the vowel is stressed and open, and because público is a proparoxytone (stress on the antepenultimate syllable), an accent is required by orthographic rules.
Can I rephrase the conditional clause using the reflexive verb atrasar-se?
Yes. You can say:
“Se o cantor se atrasar, o público esperará com paciência.”
Here atrasar-se (“to be late”) is just another way to express the same idea, and it’s very common in spoken Portuguese.
