Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Para eu mudar de rotina, tenho de aceitar pequenos riscos. - For me to change my routine, I have to accept small risks.

Para eu mudar de rotina, tenho de aceitar pequenos riscos.

For me to change my routine, I have to accept small risks.

Breakdown of Para eu mudar de rotina, tenho de aceitar pequenos riscos.

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Questions & Answers about Para eu mudar de rotina, tenho de aceitar pequenos riscos.

Can I drop eu and just say Para mudar de rotina, tenho de aceitar pequenos riscos? What changes?

Yes, you can say Para mudar de rotina, tenho de aceitar pequenos riscos, and it is perfectly correct.

Para mudar de rotina... = In order to change routine... (more general / impersonal: could be anyone’s routine, including mine)
Para eu mudar de rotina... = In order for me to change my routine... (explicitly about me)

In context, the version with eu focuses clearly on my change, not people in general. Portuguese allows dropping subject pronouns, but here adding eu makes the subject explicit and slightly more emphatic.

Why is it para eu mudar and not something conjugated like para eu mude?

Portuguese has two main patterns after para in this kind of sentence:

Para eu mudar de rotina...
- mudar here is an infinitivo pessoal (personal infinitive).
- It can take a subject: para eu mudar, para tu mudares, para nós mudarmos, etc.
- Very common and natural in both spoken and written European Portuguese.
Para que eu mude de rotina...
- mude is the present subjunctive.
- Slightly more formal or heavier; you’ll often see it in more formal writing or carefully structured speech.

Para eu mudar de rotina... is the normal, neutral choice in everyday European Portuguese. Using the personal infinitive is one of the things that makes Portuguese different from Spanish or English in this structure.

What exactly does mudar de rotina mean, and why is there a de?

The verb mudar often takes de when you mean to switch from one X to another X. Common expressions:

mudar de casa – to move house
mudar de emprego – to change job
mudar de roupa – to change clothes
mudar de opinião – to change (one’s) mind

Mudar de rotina fits this pattern: it means to change routine, in the sense of switching to a different routine.

If you say mudar a rotina, it sounds more like to change/alter the routine as an object, a bit more concrete or technical (e.g. changing a work schedule). The more idiomatic, everyday way to say change my routine in Portuguese is mudar de rotina.

Is mudar a rotina wrong here, or just different?

It’s not grammatically wrong, but it’s less idiomatic for the intended idea.

mudar de rotina – usual way to say to change your routine / get out of your routine
mudar a rotina – sounds like you’re modifying a specific routine as an object (e.g. rewriting a schedule, changing a fixed plan)

In everyday speech about lifestyle change, people from Portugal naturally say mudar de rotina.

Why is it tenho de aceitar and not tenho que aceitar?

Both exist in European Portuguese:

ter de + infinitive
ter que + infinitive

In Portugal:

ter de is a bit more common in standard/written language and is often recommended in grammar books.
ter que is also heard a lot in speech, especially informally.

In meaning, in most everyday contexts, they are practically synonymous: obligation / necessity.

So:

tenho de aceitar pequenos riscos
tenho que aceitar pequenos riscos

are both understood as I have to accept small risks, with no real difference in this sentence. The version with de just sounds slightly more standard-European-Portuguese.

Could I say preciso de aceitar pequenos riscos instead of tenho de aceitar pequenos riscos?

You can, but the nuance changes slightly:

tenho de aceitar pequenos riscos – I have to accept small risks
- Stronger sense of obligation/requirement.
preciso de aceitar pequenos riscos – literally I need to accept small risks
- Focuses more on need than on duty; could sound slightly more introspective or subjective.

Both are grammatically correct; tenho de is the more direct way to express obligation.

Why is it pequenos riscos and not riscos pequenos? Does word order matter?

Both word orders are possible, but they’re not equally natural here:

pequenos riscos – the most natural phrase here; means small / minor risks.
riscos pequenos – grammatically correct, but in this sentence it sounds less idiomatic, more like you’re contrasting sizes of risks in a descriptive way.

In Portuguese, the normal position for adjectives is after the noun (riscos pequenos), but:

Very common, “subjective” or evaluative adjectives (size, quantity, etc.) often go before the noun:
grande problema, pequena ajuda, grandes mudanças, pequenos riscos.

So pequenos riscos is the smooth, natural choice here, conveying the idea of minor rather than physically small risks.

If I also want to say “some small risks”, where does alguns go?

You would say:

alguns pequenos riscos – some small risks

Typical order:

Determiner (like alguns, uns, meus, esses)
Adjective (if it comes before)
Noun

Examples:

alguns pequenos riscos
uns pequenos riscos
os meus pequenos riscos

Forms like pequenos alguns riscos are not correct.

Why don’t we say mudar-me de rotina? When is mudar-se used?

Mudar-se (reflexive) is used when the person themselves moves or changes place, for example:

Vou mudar-me de casa. – I’m going to move house.
Eles mudaram-se para Lisboa. – They moved to Lisbon.

With rotina, the typical pattern is mudar de + noun, without a reflexive pronoun:

mudar de rotina – to change one’s routine
mudar de vida – to change (one’s) life
mudar de atitude – to change attitude

So mudar-me de rotina sounds odd and unidiomatic. The thing that changes is the routine, not you as a physical person changing place.

Could I use por instead of para? For example, Por eu mudar de rotina...?

No, por is not natural here.

para is used for purpose / goal:
Para eu mudar de rotina, tenho de aceitar pequenos riscos.
In order for me to change my routine, I have to accept small risks.
por usually expresses cause, reason, means, duration, exchange, etc. Using por with an infinitive clause like this is either wrong or, at best, very unusual.

To express in order to, you should use para (or para que with the subjunctive):

Para eu mudar de rotina, ...
Para que eu mude de rotina, ... (more formal)

Could I say Para que eu mude de rotina, tenho de aceitar pequenos riscos instead? Is that equivalent?

Yes, it’s grammatically correct and the meaning is very close, but the style shifts:

Para eu mudar de rotina, tenho de aceitar pequenos riscos.
- Uses infinitivo pessoal (mudar).
- Very natural and common in everyday European Portuguese.
Para que eu mude de rotina, tenho de aceitar pequenos riscos.
- Uses present subjunctive (mude).
- Sounds more formal, heavier, or more “written”.

In normal spoken Portuguese in Portugal, you will hear the para eu mudar version much more often.

Is there any difference between European and Brazilian Portuguese in a sentence like this?

The structure is valid in both varieties, but typical choices differ a bit:

In Portugal, very natural:

Para eu mudar de rotina, tenho de aceitar pequenos riscos.

In Brazil, you might more often hear:

Para mudar a minha rotina, tenho que aceitar alguns riscos.

Differences:

Brazilians are more likely to say ter que; in Portugal ter de is more standard.
With rotina, Brazilians might say mudar a minha rotina a bit more easily; in Portugal mudar de rotina is the default idiomatic phrase.
The use of alguns is also very common in Brazil: aceitar alguns riscos.

But your original sentence is perfectly correct European Portuguese.