Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Quem faltar hoje à reunião recebe o resumo por e‑mail amanhã. - Whoever is absent from the meeting today will receive the summary by email tomorrow.

Quem = “who / whoever / anyone who”.
Faltar is in the present subjunctive (3rd person singular: falte, but here infinitive vs. subjunctive? Careful: “faltar” vs “falte”; wait: the sentence is quem faltar — that’s actually the future subjunctive, same form as the infinitive in regular -ar verbs: faltar).

So:

This is future subjunctive: quem faltar = “whoever misses / anyone who misses (in the future)”.
It’s used because the action is conditional and in the future (today’s meeting hasn’t happened yet).

In English we just say “Whoever misses the meeting today gets the summary by email tomorrow.”
In Portuguese (especially European Portuguese), for future/uncertain conditions introduced by quem, se, quando, etc., you usually use the future subjunctive:

Quem chegar atrasado não entra. – “Whoever arrives late doesn’t come in.”
Se vieres amanhã, falamos. – “If you come tomorrow, we’ll talk.”

So quem faltar is the natural, grammatically correct way to say “whoever misses” referring to a future possibility.

Why is “faltar” used here? Does it mean “to miss” in the sense of “not attend”?

Yes. In this context, faltar (a) means “to be absent from / not attend” (a class, meeting, etc.).

faltar à reunião = “to miss the meeting / to be absent from the meeting”.

Comparable examples:

Ele faltou às aulas ontem. – “He skipped classes yesterday.”
Não podes faltar ao exame. – “You can’t miss the exam.”

You could also say não vier à reunião (“doesn’t come to the meeting”), but faltar à reunião is the most natural idiom for “not attending / being absent from” a scheduled event.

Why is it “à reunião” with a grave accent (à), and not just “a reunião”?

À (with a grave accent) is a contraction of:

a (preposition “to / at”) +
a (feminine singular definite article “the”)

So:

a + a = à

Here:

The verb faltar is used with the preposition a: faltar a algo (“to be absent from something”).
reunião is feminine: a reunião = “the meeting”.

Combine them:

faltar a + a reunião → faltar à reunião

So à reunião = “to/from the meeting” in this context, but grammatically it’s “to the meeting” (preposition + article merged).

Could you explain the difference between “faltar à reunião” and “faltar a reunião” without the accent?

In standard written Portuguese, faltar à reunião (with à) is the correct form, because:

You need both the preposition (a) and the article (a), and they contract to à.

Writing faltar a reunião (without the accent) would normally mean you wrote only the preposition and dropped the article, which is odd here, because reunião is a specific meeting already known from context.

So:

faltar à reunião – correct, natural, “miss the meeting.”
faltar a reunião – generally considered incorrect / at least non-standard in this context.

There are cases where you have just a (preposition with no article), but not in this typical structure with a specific meeting.

Why is it “hoje à reunião” instead of “à reunião hoje”? Can the word order change?

Both positions are possible; the default in this sentence is:

Quem faltar hoje à reunião… – “Whoever misses the meeting today…”

You can also say:

Quem faltar à reunião hoje recebe…

Differences:

Hoje à reunião slightly emphasizes “today” as part of the condition.
À reunião hoje sounds a bit more neutral; both are fine.

In practice, both word orders are acceptable, and the difference is subtle. The given sentence is perfectly idiomatic.

Why is “recebe” in the present tense if the email is sent tomorrow?

Portuguese often uses the present indicative to talk about future results in conditional-type structures like this:

Quem faltar hoje à reunião recebe o resumo por e-mail amanhã.
= “Whoever misses the meeting today gets the summary by email tomorrow.”

The idea is:

Condition: faltar hoje à reunião (today)
Result: recebe o resumo (tomorrow)

Even though recebe happens in the future, using the present makes the rule sound general and firm, almost like a standing rule.

You could also say:

…vai receber o resumo… – “is going to receive the summary…”
…receberá o resumo… – “will receive the summary…”

These are also correct, but recebe sounds more direct and rule-like, as in “This is what happens if you do that.”

Could I say “vai receber o resumo” or “receberá o resumo” instead of “recebe o resumo”? Is there a nuance?

Yes, you can:

Quem faltar hoje à reunião vai receber o resumo por e‑mail amanhã.
Quem faltar hoje à reunião receberá o resumo por e‑mail amanhã.

Nuance:

recebe – sounds like a neutral, general rule (“in that case, X happens”).
vai receber – slightly more conversational / informal, emphasizes the future.
receberá – more formal / written and explicitly future; used more in careful writing or formal speech.

All three are grammatically correct. The original recebe is very typical in announcements and rules.

Why is the verb “recebe” singular, if “quem” can refer to more than one person?

In Portuguese, quem (who / whoever) is grammatically treated as third person singular, even if it logically refers to several people.

So:

Quem faltar hoje à reunião recebe o resumo…
– literally: “Whoever misses today the meeting, he/she receives the summary…”

Other examples:

Quem chegar primeiro ganha um prémio.
Quem fizer isto está a violar as regras.

You would not normally say:

Quem faltar hoje à reunião recebem o resumo… ✗ (incorrect)

Verb agreement is singular with quem.

Could I say “se alguém faltar hoje à reunião” instead of “quem faltar hoje à reunião”? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can say:

Se alguém faltar hoje à reunião, recebe o resumo por e‑mail amanhã.

Differences:

quem faltar… – “whoever misses… / anyone who misses…”, more compact and slightly more generic.
se alguém faltar… – “if someone misses…”, focuses a bit more on the possibility that one or more unnamed people might miss.

Functionally, in this context, the meaning is almost the same.
Both are correct and idiomatic.

Why is it “por e‑mail” and not just “e‑mail”? What does “por” do here?

The preposition por in por e‑mail indicates the means / channel used:

por e‑mail – “by email / via email”
por telefone – “by phone”
por correio – “by (postal) mail”

So recebe o resumo por e‑mail = “gets the summary by means of email”.

You could leave out por in very informal speech — “recebe o resumo e‑mail amanhã” — but that sounds non-standard or wrong. In standard Portuguese you keep por.

Is “e‑mail” the usual word in Portugal, and is the hyphen important?

In European Portuguese, e‑mail (often now written email) is very common and widely understood.

Spelling variations: e-mail, email, sometimes correio eletrónico in more formal or official contexts.

The hyphen (e-mail) is becoming less common; email is frequent in modern usage. Orthographic rules vary, but in everyday writing in Portugal, you’ll see:

por e-mail
por email

Both are acceptable in practice. The sentence you have is perfectly natural.

Why is “amanhã” placed at the end of the sentence? Can it go elsewhere?

Time adverbs like amanhã (“tomorrow”) are quite flexible in word order. Common options:

Quem faltar hoje à reunião recebe o resumo por e‑mail amanhã.
Quem faltar hoje à reunião amanhã recebe o resumo por e‑mail. (less usual here)
Amanhã, quem faltar hoje à reunião recebe o resumo por e‑mail.

The original:

Puts amanhã right after the part it modifies: recebe o resumo por e‑mail.
Clearly indicates when the person will receive the summary.

This is the most natural-sounding placement in this sentence.

Could I say “faltar na reunião” instead of “faltar à reunião”?

In European Portuguese, the natural expression is:

faltar a
- event: faltar à reunião, faltar à aula, faltar ao trabalho.

Faltar na reunião is not standard in Portugal in this meaning.

In Brazilian Portuguese, you may hear structures like faltar na aula, faltar no trabalho, but even there faltar à reunião is also correct and common.

So for Portuguese (Portugal), stick with faltar à reunião.