Questions & Answers about O comboio vai atrasar.
What grammar is being used in O comboio vai atrasar?
It’s the periphrastic future in Portuguese: ir (present) + infinitive. Here, vai is the 3rd person singular of ir (to go), and atrasar is the infinitive. This construction is the most common way in European Portuguese to talk about the near or planned future.
- Conjugation of ir (present): vou, vais, vai, vamos, ides, vão.
Do I need the reflexive pronoun “se” (atrasar-se) here?
Not necessarily. With things like trains or events, European Portuguese uses both:
- O comboio vai atrasar. (very common and perfectly correct)
- O comboio vai-se atrasar. / O comboio vai atrasar-se. (also correct)
Using -se emphasizes the subject “being late” rather than something else delaying it, but in practice both versions are idiomatic for trains. With people, atrasar-se is more typical: Vou-me atrasar (I’m going to be late).
If I include “se,” where does it go? And do I need hyphens?
- Affirmative main clause: either vai-se atrasar (clitic climbs to the auxiliary) or vai atrasar-se (stays with the infinitive). Both take hyphens after the verb they attach to.
- With a proclisis trigger like não: Não se vai atrasar. (no hyphen because the clitic comes before the verb)
- Avoid the Brazilian-style spacing vai se atrasar in EP writing; prefer vai-se atrasar or vai atrasar-se.
Can I say O comboio atrasará or O comboio irá atrasar?
How do I say the train is late, was late, or will be late?
How do I add the amount of delay?
Why is it O comboio and not just Comboio?
Portuguese uses the definite article a lot more than English. O comboio points to a specific, known train (e.g., the 9:00 service). You might drop the article in headlines or generic statements (e.g., Comboios atrasam no inverno = Trains run late in winter), but in normal speech about a specific train, use o.
Is vai ser atrasado acceptable?
What’s the difference between atrasar, chegar atrasado, and demorar?
- atrasar (intransitive): the event ends up late. Example: O comboio atrasou 15 minutos.
- chegar atrasado: focuses on the arrival being late. Example: O comboio vai chegar atrasado.
- demorar: “to take time.” Example: O comboio vai demorar (it’ll take a while), or Vai demorar a chegar (will take long to arrive). It doesn’t inherently mean “late.”
What’s the Brazilian vs. European word for “train”?
In Portugal it’s comboio. In Brazil it’s trem. People in Portugal understand trem, but it sounds Brazilian. Stick to comboio in European Portuguese.
How do I pronounce O comboio vai atrasar?
Approximate European Portuguese:
How do I make it negative or ask a question?
How do I talk about multiple trains?
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