Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Se tu estiveres muito nervoso, é melhor fazeres uma pausa. - If you are very nervous, it is better for you to take a break.

it would sound more like checking something that is happening right now, and is less standard; many speakers would still say it in conversation, but grammar books prefer se + future subjunctive for conditions about the future.

So estiveres is used because:

se introduces a conditional clause, and
the condition is about a possible future state, not an already-known present fact.

What tense and mood is estiveres, and how is it formed?

Estiveres is:

tense: future
mood: subjunctive (futuro do conjuntivo)
person: 2nd person singular (tu)

Full conjugation of estar in the future subjunctive:

(quando) eu estiver
(quando) tu estiveres
(quando) ele / ela / você estiver
(quando) nós estivermos
(quando) vós estiverdes (rare in modern speech)
(quando) eles / elas estiverem

Formation rule (for most verbs):

Take the 3rd person plural of the simple past (pretérito perfeito):
- eles estiveram
Remove the final -am:
- estiver-
Add the endings: ø, -es, ø, -mos, -des, -em → estiver, estiveres, estiver, estivermos, estiverdes, estiverem.

Why is it fazeres and not fazes after é melhor?

Because in é melhor fazeres uma pausa, fazeres is not a normal finite verb form like fazes. It is the personal infinitive (infinitivo pessoal).

Compare:

tu fazes – present indicative (“you do / you make”)
(tu) fazeres – personal infinitive (“for you to do / for you to make”)

After impersonal expressions like é melhor, é bom, é importante, Portuguese very often uses:

é melhor + personal infinitive when you want to specify who should do the action:
- É melhor tu ires. – It’s better (for) you to go.
- É melhor fazeres uma pausa. – It’s better (for) you to take a break.

So fazeres matches the subject tu, but it stays in an infinitive structure instead of a normal finite tense.

What exactly is fazeres grammatically, and what are its other forms?

Fazeres is the 2nd person singular of the personal infinitive of fazer.

Personal infinitive of fazer:

(eu) fazer
(tu) fazeres
(ele / ela / você) fazer
(nós) fazermos
(vós) fazerdes
(eles / elas) fazerem

Usage:

It’s called “personal” because it can show person and number, unlike English to do, which never changes.
It’s still an infinitive, so it often appears:
- after prepositions: antes de fazermos, para fazeres
- after impersonal expressions: é melhor fazermos, é preciso fazerem

What is the difference between é melhor fazeres uma pausa and é melhor que faças uma pausa?

Both are correct in European Portuguese and both express a recommendation, but there are some nuances:

Structure
- É melhor fazeres uma pausa.
  - é melhor
    - personal infinitive (fazeres)
- É melhor que faças uma pausa.
  - é melhor que
    - present subjunctive (faças)
Frequency / feel
- In Portugal, é melhor + personal infinitive is very common in speech.
- é melhor que + subjunctive sounds slightly more formal or “bookish”.
Meaning difference
- In practice, no real difference in meaning here: both are “It’s better if you take a break.”
- The infinitive version is a bit lighter structurally, and many native speakers prefer it in everyday conversation.

So you can safely use either, but é melhor fazeres uma pausa will sound very natural in Portugal.

Why does the sentence use estiveres (subjunctive) in the first part and fazeres (infinitive) in the second? Isn’t that mixing moods?

They’re different because they serve different grammatical roles:

Se tu estiveres muito nervoso
- This is a full clause (has a subject tu and a finite verb estiveres), expressing a condition → needs a finite verb in the future subjunctive.
é melhor fazeres uma pausa
- Here é is the finite verb in the main clause.
- fazeres is part of an infinitive construction that works like the “content” of é melhor (“what is better?” → “for you to take a break”).
- So fazeres must be an infinitive, not a normal finite verb.

So there is no conflict: the conditional clause needs a finite subjunctive form (estiveres), and the main clause takes a personal infinitive (fazeres) after é melhor.

Can I leave out tu and say Se estiveres muito nervoso, é melhor fazeres uma pausa?

Yes, that’s perfectly natural and often more typical of Portuguese:

Se estiveres muito nervoso, é melhor fazeres uma pausa.

In Portuguese, subject pronouns (eu, tu, ele…) are often dropped because the verb ending usually makes the subject clear.

Why keep tu sometimes?

To avoid ambiguity,
for emphasis,
or in contexts where several people are being talked about and you want to highlight exactly who.

Here, both versions are correct:

Se tu estiveres muito nervoso… – slightly more emphatic / explicit.
Se estiveres muito nervoso… – shorter and very natural in speech.

Could I use você instead of tu in Portugal in this sentence?

You can, but you need to adjust the verb forms, and in Portugal você has a different feel from Brazilian Portuguese.

In European Portuguese:

tu = informal, friendly, used with friends, family, many colleagues
você = relatively distant or polite, and can even sound a bit cold or slightly rude depending on tone and region

If you use você, the verbs must be in the 3rd person singular:

Se você estiver muito nervoso, é melhor fazer uma pausa.

Notes:

You usually don’t use the personal infinitive ending -es with você, so é melhor fazer uma pausa, not é melhor fazeres.
In many situations in Portugal, instead of você, people prefer o senhor / a senhora or simply omit the pronoun.

Does nervoso change if I’m talking to a woman?

Yes. Nervoso agrees in gender and number with the person:

talking to a man:
- Se tu estiveres muito nervoso…
talking to a woman:
- Se tu estiveres muito nervosa…

Plural:

to several men or a mixed group:
- Se vocês estiverem muito nervosos…
to several women:
- Se vocês estiverem muito nervosas…

So only nervoso / nervosa / nervosos / nervosas changes; the other words stay the same.

Why is muito placed before nervoso? Could it go after, or be replaced?

Here muito is an adverb meaning “very”, so it goes before the adjective:

muito nervoso – very nervous

As an adverb:

muito is invariable:
- muito nervoso, muito nervosa, muito nervosos, muito nervosas

You cannot place it after the adjective in this meaning; *nervoso muito is wrong in this context.

Possible alternatives:

bastante nervoso – quite / rather nervous
nervosíssimo – extremely nervous (superlative)
um bocado nervoso (informal) – a bit nervous

Why is there a comma after Se tu estiveres muito nervoso?

Because the conditional clause comes first:

Se tu estiveres muito nervoso, é melhor fazeres uma pausa.

In European Portuguese punctuation:

When a subordinate clause (starting with se, quando, porque, embora, etc.) comes before the main clause, you normally use a comma.
If the order is reversed, you usually do not use a comma:
- É melhor fazeres uma pausa se tu estiveres muito nervoso.

So the comma here follows a standard rule, not a special meaning change.

Is Se estás muito nervoso, é melhor fazeres uma pausa wrong?

It’s not strictly wrong, but it sounds different:

Se estás muito nervoso…
- Uses the present indicative.
- Feels more like checking or commenting on a current, real situation:
  - If you are (as you say / as you look) very nervous, then it’s better to take a break.
Se estiveres muito nervoso…
- Uses the future subjunctive, the standard choice for possible future conditions.
- Feels more hypothetical or projected into the future:
  - If you (happen to) get very nervous (at some point), it’s better to take a break.

In everyday speech, some people do use se + present indicative, but for learner purposes, it’s safer and more correct to stick with se + future subjunctive for this type of conditional: se estiveres.

Could I say Se fores muito nervoso instead of Se estiveres muito nervoso? What’s the difference between ser and estar here?

You could say Se fores muito nervoso, but the meaning changes:

estar nervoso = being nervous at a particular moment, a temporary state
- Se estiveres muito nervoso… → If you are very nervous (then / at that time)…
ser nervoso = being a nervous person by nature, a character trait
- Se fores muito nervoso… → If you are (by nature) a very nervous person…

So:

The original sentence talks about how you feel at that moment (e.g. during an exam, while driving, etc.).
Se fores muito nervoso, é melhor fazeres uma pausa would mean something like:
- If you’re the kind of person who is very nervous (as a personality trait), it’s better for you to take breaks.

Both are grammatical, but the default / most natural version for a situational feeling is estar.

Why is it uma pausa and not um pausa, or just pausa without an article?

Because:

Pausa is a feminine noun → a pausa / uma pausa
- a = the (definite article, feminine singular)
- uma = a (indefinite article, feminine singular)
In this context, Portuguese usually uses an indefinite article:
- fazer uma pausa = “take a (short / some) break”

Without an article:

fazer pausa is not idiomatic here.
You normally say:
- fazer uma pausa
- fazer uma pequena pausa
- fazer uma pausa rápida

So uma is required because of both gender and natural idiomatic usage.

Is fazer uma pausa the standard way to say “to take a break”? Are there other common options?

Yes, fazer uma pausa is a very standard and natural expression in European Portuguese for “to take a break”.

Other common options include:

fazer um intervalo – often used for breaks during classes, meetings, shows, etc.
fazer uma paragem – more literal “make a stop” (e.g. car journey)
fazer uma paragem para descansar – make a stop to rest
fazer uma pausa para café / fazer uma pausa para almoço – take a coffee / lunch break
descansar um bocado – rest for a bit (more general, not necessarily stopping an activity formally)

In the context of stress or nervousness, fazer uma pausa or fazer um intervalo are the most idiomatic.