Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Quem tiver coragem para continuar vai, um dia, agradecer a si próprio por cada vitória. - Whoever has the courage to continue will, one day, thank themselves for each victory.

Quem tiver coragem… = Whoever has the courage… / Anyone who has the courage… (looking ahead to a future or hypothetical situation)
Quem tem coragem… = Who(ever) has courage… (more general, habitual, less focused on a future condition)
Quem tinha coragem… = Who(ever) used to have / had courage… (past, background)

Portuguese uses the future subjunctive in clauses introduced by quem, se, quando, enquanto, logo que, assim que etc., when they refer to something that is not yet realized but may happen in the future:

Se tiver coragem, vai conseguir. – If you have courage, you will manage.
Quando tiver tempo, ligo-te. – When I have time, I’ll call you.

So Quem tiver coragem is “Whoever ends up having courage (when the time comes)” rather than a timeless statement about people who in general have courage.

How is the form tiver (future subjunctive) built, and is there a rule I can use for other verbs?

Yes. The future subjunctive in Portuguese is based on the 3rd person plural of the simple past (pretérito perfeito).

For ter:

Pretérito perfeito, 3rd plural: tiveram
Remove -am → tiver-
Add endings:

eu tiver
tu tiveres
ele/ela/você tiver
nós tivermos
vós tiverdes (rare in speech)
eles/elas/vocês tiverem

Same rule for other verbs:

falaram → falar- → falar, falares, falar, falarmos, falardes, falarem
comeram → comer- → comer, comeres, comer, comermos, comerdes, comerem
fizeram → fizer- → fizer, fizeres, fizer, fizermos, fizerdes, fizerem

You see it mainly after se, quando, enquanto, logo que, assim que, quem when referring to the future.

Quem tiver can mean “those who have” in English. Why is the verb singular (tiver) and not plural (tiverem)?

With quem, the verb usually agrees in the singular, even when in English you’d say those who:

Quem tiver coragem… vai agradecer…
Literally: He/she/that person who has courage… will be grateful…
Interpreted: Whoever has courage… / Those who have courage…

Portuguese tends to treat quem as grammatically singular:

Quem quer vir, que venha. – Whoever wants to come, let them come.

You can sometimes see plural agreement (Quem tiverem…) in informal contexts when the speaker strongly thinks of a plural group, but in standard Portuguese (especially in Portugal) the singular is preferred and feels more natural.

Why is it para continuar and not de continuar? Is there a rule for coragem para vs coragem de?

Both coragem para + infinitive and coragem de + infinitive exist, and both are acceptable. The difference here is stylistic, not grammatical.

Ter coragem para continuar
Ter coragem de continuar

In many contexts they are interchangeable. Native speakers in Portugal often say:

Tive coragem de falar. / Tive coragem para falar.
I had the courage to speak.

With infinitives of action (“to do something”), de is very common, but para is also perfectly correct and perhaps slightly more “neutral” or formal in this type of motivational sentence.

So coragem para continuar feels natural and doesn’t change the meaning compared to coragem de continuar.

Why is it vai, um dia, agradecer with commas around um dia? Can I say Um dia vai agradecer instead?

Yes, you can say Um dia vai agradecer, and that’s very natural:

Um dia vai agradecer a si próprio por cada vitória.

In the original:

… vai, um dia, agradecer…

the commas turn um dia into a detached time adverbial, a little parenthetical: will, one day, be thankful… It adds a slight rhythmic and rhetorical effect, making “one day” stand out as a reassuring aside.

All of these are grammatical, with slightly different rhythm:

Quem tiver coragem para continuar vai um dia agradecer…
Quem tiver coragem para continuar, um dia, vai agradecer…
Quem tiver coragem para continuar vai, um dia, agradecer…

The meaning remains the same: At some point in the future, that person will be thankful.

What exactly does a si próprio mean, and why not something simpler like se agradecer?

A si próprio literally means “to oneself” / “to themselves”.

si – reflexive pronoun used for third person (he, she, they) and for formal you after a preposition
próprio – “own, oneself,” used for emphasis

So:

agradecer a si próprio = to thank oneself (emphatic)

You can’t say se agradecer here because:

Agradecer in Portuguese normally works like:
- agradecer a alguém por alguma coisa
  (to thank someone for something)
The indirect object (a alguém) must appear with a (to), not as a clitic se used as a direct or indirect object here.

Ele vai agradecer a si próprio. ✅
Ele vai agradecer-se. – very unusual/awkward and not idiomatic in this sense.

In European Portuguese, to say “oneself,” you commonly use:

a si próprio (masc. sing.)
a si própria (fem. sing.)
a si próprios / a si próprias (plurals)

Why is it próprio and not própria or próprios? Does it change with gender and number?

Yes, próprio agrees with the person it refers to, in gender and number.

In the sentence, quem is grammatically singular and not marked for gender, so próprio is in the default masculine singular:

Quem tiver coragem… vai agradecer a si próprio…
(whoever (he/she) is, will thank himself/herself)

Changes depending on who you have in mind:

Talking clearly about a woman:
- Ela vai agradecer a si própria. – She will thank herself.
Talking about multiple people (mixed or male group):
- Eles vão agradecer a si próprios. – They will thank themselves.
Female group:
- Elas vão agradecer a si próprias.

With quem, you usually keep próprio (masc. sing.) unless the context has made a specific gender/number very explicit.

Why do we have both a and por in agradecer a si próprio por cada vitória? What does each preposition do?

This follows a common pattern with agradecer:

agradecer a alguém por alguma coisa
to thank someone for something

a si próprio – the indirect object (whom you thank)
por cada vitória – the reason / cause (what you are thankful for)

Some examples:

Quero agradecer aos meus pais por tudo.
I want to thank my parents for everything.
Agradecemos a Deus pela ajuda.
We thank God for the help.

So in the sentence:

vai… agradecer a si próprio por cada vitória
= will thank themself for each victory.

Why isn’t there an explicit subject before vai? Who is doing the vai agradecer action?

In Portuguese, the subject is often omitted when it’s clear from the context or from the verb form.

The subject of vai agradecer is still quem tiver coragem:

Quem tiver coragem para continuar (subject, expressed in the first clause)
vai, um dia, agradecer a si próprio… (verb phrase referring back to quem)

English would say:

Whoever has the courage to go on will one day thank themselves…

In Portuguese, repeating a subject pronoun ele/ela/você here would be wrong, because quem is already the subject and you don’t replace it:

Quem tiver coragem… ele vai agradecer… ❌ (ungrammatical / clumsy)
Quem tiver coragem… vai agradecer… ✅ (natural)

Could I say quem tiver coragem para continuar há de agradecer or agradecerá instead of vai agradecer?

You could, but each form has a slightly different feel:

vai agradecer – periphrastic future (ir + infinitive)
- Very common in spoken and written Portuguese, neutral future.
agradecerá – synthetic future
- Feels more formal or literary, more common in writing than everyday speech.
há de agradecer – will eventually / is bound to thank
- Has a nuance of inevitability or strong expectation. Also somewhat more literary or formal.

All three are grammatically correct in European Portuguese:

Quem tiver coragem… vai agradecer a si próprio… ✅ (neutral, natural)
Quem tiver coragem… agradecerá a si próprio… ✅ (more formal/literary)
Quem tiver coragem… há de agradecer a si próprio… ✅ (inevitability, slightly old-fashioned or rhetorical tone)

In modern, everyday European Portuguese, vai agradecer is the most natural in a motivational sentence like this.

Can I change the word order to Quem tiver coragem para continuar, um dia vai agradecer a si próprio…? Is that still correct?

Yes, that’s correct and natural:

Quem tiver coragem para continuar, um dia vai agradecer a si próprio por cada vitória.

The time adverbial um dia is flexible in position. Common options:

Um dia, quem tiver coragem para continuar vai agradecer a si próprio…
Quem tiver coragem para continuar vai, um dia, agradecer a si próprio…
Quem tiver coragem para continuar, um dia vai agradecer a si próprio…

All are grammatical; the differences are rhythmic and stylistic, not structural.

What is the nuance of por cada vitória compared to por todas as vitórias?

Both are positive, but they highlight different things:

por cada vitória – for each victory
- Emphasizes every single victory individually. Suggests that even the small ones matter.
por todas as vitórias – for all the victories
- Focuses more on the victories as a whole group.

In a motivational or reflective sentence, por cada vitória sounds like:

You’ll one day thank yourself for *every step you took, for each and every win along the way.*

It reinforces the idea that every small success is important and worth gratitude.