Breakdown of Um anúncio no aeroporto avisou que poderia haver atraso na bagagem.
um
a
em
in
poder
to be able to
que
that
o aeroporto
the airport
haver
to exist
o atraso
the delay
a bagagem
the luggage
o anúncio
the announcement
avisar
to warn
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Questions & Answers about Um anúncio no aeroporto avisou que poderia haver atraso na bagagem.
Why is the verb haver used in poderia haver atraso instead of ter?
In Portuguese, haver is the standard impersonal verb to express existence (“there is/there are”). In a conditional sentence like poderia haver atraso, it literally means “there could be a delay.” Although colloquially you might hear ter atraso, especially in Brazil, haver is more formal and preferred in European Portuguese for existential statements.
Why is poderia in the conditional and not pode in the present?
Using the conditional poderia softens the message and conveys uncertainty or politeness: “there might be a delay.” If you said pode haver atraso, it’s a more definite present statement (“there can be a delay”), which is also correct but less tentative. Announcements often use the conditional to avoid alarming people.
What role does que play after avisou?
The conjunction que introduces the subordinate clause containing the message. The verb avisar (to inform or warn) when followed by que + [statement] means “to inform/announce that ….” So avisou que poderia haver atraso = “it announced that there could be a delay.”
Why is there no object pronoun in avisou que? Would avisou-nos be better?
The recipients of the announcement (“passengers,” for instance) are understood from context, so Portuguese allows dropping the indirect object pronoun. You could say um anúncio no aeroporto avisou-nos que… or even avisou os passageiros que…, but it’s more concise (and common) to leave it implicit.
Why use um before anúncio but o in no aeroporto?
Um is the indefinite article (“a/an”), indicating any announcement. No is a contraction of em + o (“in the”), so no aeroporto refers to that specific airport. In other words: “A certain announcement said … in the airport we are at.”
Why is atraso singular and why na bagagem instead of nas bagagens?
Bagagem is generally a collective (uncountable) noun: you talk about “luggage” as a whole, not individual pieces. Hence atraso na bagagem = “delay in the luggage.” You could say atrasos (plural) if emphasizing multiple separate delays, but the singular is more natural here. And na = em + a, meaning “in the.”
Could you replace avisou with anunciou or informou?
Yes.
- Avisar stresses warning or alerting.
- Informar is neutral “to inform.”
- Anunciar often means “to announce” publicly.
All three fit, with slight nuances: e.g. um anúncio no aeroporto informou que… or um anúncio … anunciou que… both work.
Why is the preterite avisou (pretérito perfeito) used here instead of, say, the imperfect avisava?
European Portuguese commonly uses the simple past (pretérito perfeito) to report a specific completed action (“the announcement happened”). The imperfect (avisava) would suggest an ongoing or habitual action in the past (e.g. “there used to be announcements saying…”). Here, avisou points to a single announcement that took place.