Breakdown of Quando era mais novo, eu tinha muito medo de falhar e evitava qualquer risco.
Questions & Answers about Quando era mais novo, eu tinha muito medo de falhar e evitava qualquer risco.
In European Portuguese, subject pronouns (like eu, tu, ele) are often dropped because the verb ending already shows who the subject is.
- Quando era mais novo = Quando eu era mais novo
Both mean When I was younger.
The version without eu at the start sounds very natural and is slightly more fluid. Adding eu (Quando eu era mais novo) is also correct; it can sound a bit more emphatic or explicit.
In this sentence, we do have eu later: eu tinha muito medo… — that’s just a stylistic choice, not a rule. You could also say:
- Quando era mais novo, tinha muito medo de falhar e evitava qualquer risco.
- Quando eu era mais novo, eu tinha muito medo…
All are grammatically correct.
Three different issues are involved here: the verb (ser vs estar) and the tense (imperfect vs preterite).
Ser vs estar
- ser (to be, in an essential/identity sense): used for age, characteristics, long-term states.
- estar (to be, in a temporary sense): used for temporary conditions, locations, ongoing states.
Age or life stage is normally expressed with ser:
- Quando eu era criança – When I was a child
- Quando era mais novo – When I was younger
Quando eu estava mais novo is not idiomatic.
Imperfect (era) vs preterite (fui)
- era (imperfeito): describes an ongoing, habitual, or background situation in the past.
- fui (pretérito perfeito): describes a completed event or change.
Saying Quando fui mais novo is ungrammatical in this sense; you’re not talking about a one-time event of “being younger”, but a general period in your life. So the imperfect era is the natural choice.
They describe background conditions and habitual behavior in the past:
- Quando era mais novo – background time frame (when I was younger).
- eu tinha muito medo de falhar – a lasting state: I used to be very afraid / I had a lot of fear.
- e evitava qualquer risco – repeated, habitual action: I would avoid any risk / I used to avoid any risk.
In Portuguese, the imperfeito is used for:
- ongoing states in the past (age, feelings, situations),
- repeated or habitual actions,
- background descriptions.
If you used the preterite (tive, evitei), it would wrongly suggest single, completed events:
- Quando era mais novo, eu tive muito medo de falhar – sounds like one specific moment of fear.
- …e evitei qualquer risco – sounds like you avoided risk on a specific occasion.
But the sentence is about how you generally were when younger; thus era, tinha, evitava are correct.
Both can mean younger, but there are nuances:
mais novo
- Very common and natural in everyday speech.
- Often refers simply to age: Quando era mais novo = When I was younger.
- Can also mean “newer” when referring to objects, not just people.
mais jovem
- Also correct for people’s age.
- Slightly more formal or “literary” in some contexts, or used in expressions like gente jovem (young people).
- Less likely to refer to objects.
In this sentence:
- Quando era mais novo is the most natural, colloquial way to say When I was younger.
- Quando era mais jovem is also correct, just a bit more formal in tone.
Portuguese typically uses ter + (muito) medo as a set pattern for to be (very) afraid:
- ter medo de … – to be afraid of …
- ter muito medo de … – to be very afraid of …
So:
- eu tinha muito medo de falhar = I was very afraid of failing.
You could say tinha um grande medo, but:
- It sounds more unusual and heavy, like talking about one specific, almost “concrete” fear.
- It’s not the normal everyday way to express “I was very scared”.
Idiomatic patterns are:
- ter medo de
- ter muito medo de
- ter pavor de (to be terrified of)
Because in Portuguese the structure is:
- ter medo de + [infinitive]
This de links the noun medo to the action that causes the fear:
- ter medo de falhar – to be afraid of failing
- ter medo de voar – to be afraid of flying
- ter medo de falar em público – to be afraid of speaking in public
You cannot drop the de here.
❌ ter medo falhar – incorrect
✔️ ter medo de falhar – correct
falhar is a very common, general verb meaning to fail, to go wrong, or to miss. In this sentence:
- medo de falhar = afraid of failing (in general: in life, at tasks, at goals).
Other verbs exist but have slightly different uses:
- fracassar – to fail badly, to be unsuccessful (often in a stronger or more dramatic sense):
- Ele fracassou na carreira. – He failed in his career.
- reprovar (num exame) / chumbar (num exame) – to fail an exam:
- Chumbei ao exame. (informal, PT)
- Fui reprovado no exame. (more formal)
Falhar is the right, broad, neutral verb here for general failure, not just exams.
In tinha muito medo, muito is intensifying the noun medo (a lot of fear), so it goes before the noun:
- muito medo – a lot of fear, very afraid
Correct word order:
- tinha muito medo de falhar
The following are not idiomatic:
- ❌ tinha medo muito – wrong position of muito.
- ❌ tinha medo de falhar muito – this would mean I was afraid of failing a lot (many times), which changes the meaning.
So the pattern is:
- ter muito medo (de + infinitive)
Both exist:
- qualquer risco (singular)
- quaisquer riscos (plural, more formal/rare in speech)
Meaning-wise:
- qualquer risco = any risk (at all), in a very general sense.
- quaisquer riscos = any risks, grammatically plural, but stylistically more formal and less common in everyday speech.
In modern spoken European Portuguese, people very often use qualquer even when the meaning is logically plural:
- evitava qualquer risco – I avoided any risk / I avoided taking any risks.
Using quaisquer riscos is correct but can sound written or formal. The sentence as given is perfectly natural PT-PT.
Two different reasons:
ter medo – no article because this is a fixed, idiomatic construction:
- ter medo – to be afraid
- ter muito medo – to be very afraid
We don’t usually say ter o medo unless we’re talking about some specific, already mentioned fear.
qualquer risco – no article because qualquer itself is a determiner (like any in English).
It replaces an article:- um risco – a risk
- o risco – the risk
- qualquer risco – any risk
You normally don’t combine qualquer with a definite or indefinite article:
- ❌ qualquer o risco
- ❌ qualquer um risco
- ✔️ qualquer risco
Yes. In Portuguese, the verb endings already show the subject, so pronouns are often dropped:
- tinha muito medo de falhar e evitava qualquer risco.
This still clearly means I had / I used to have and I avoided / would avoid, because:
- tinha (1st person singular imperfeito of ter)
- evitava (1st person singular imperfeito of evitar)
Possible variants (all correct) are:
- Quando era mais novo, eu tinha muito medo de falhar e evitava qualquer risco.
- Quando era mais novo, tinha muito medo de falhar e evitava qualquer risco.
- Quando eu era mais novo, tinha muito medo de falhar e evitava qualquer risco.
Adding eu can give a bit more emphasis or clarity, but it isn’t required grammatically.