Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): O treinador pede para nós respirarmos fundo antes de começarmos o exercício. - The coach asks us to breathe deeply before we start the exercise.

O treinador pede para nós respirarmos fundo antes de começarmos o exercício.

The coach asks us to breathe deeply before we start the exercise.

Breakdown of O treinador pede para nós respirarmos fundo antes de começarmos o exercício.

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Questions & Answers about O treinador pede para nós respirarmos fundo antes de começarmos o exercício.

Why does the sentence use pede para instead of pede que or just pede?

In European Portuguese, pedir para + infinitive is a very common way to say to ask (someone) to do something.

O treinador pede para nós respirarmos fundo...
= The coach asks us to breathe deeply...

This pattern is:

pedir (a alguém) para + [infinitive / personal infinitive]

You could also say:

O treinador pede que nós respiremos fundo...

Here you have pedir que + subjunctive, which is a bit more formal or literary.

Just pede on its own is incomplete; you need to say what he asks:

O treinador pede silêncio. – The coach asks for silence.
O treinador pede para respirarmos fundo. – The coach asks us to breathe deeply.
O treinador pede que respiremos fundo. – The coach asks that we breathe deeply.

So pede para is a normal, natural structure in everyday European Portuguese when followed by a verb action.

Why is it para nós respirarmos and not just para respirar?

Both are grammatically possible, but they don’t say exactly the same thing.

para respirar fundo – to breathe deeply (no explicit subject; “someone” in general)
para nós respirarmos fundo – for us to breathe deeply (explicit subject: nós)

In this sentence the coach is clearly talking about us, the group who will do the exercise. So para nós respirarmos makes the subject explicit and personal.

Grammatically, respirarmos is a personal infinitive (infinitivo pessoal), which allows you to:

keep the verb non‑finite (no tense: not we breathe, but for us to breathe)
still show who is supposed to do the action.

So:

O treinador pede para respirar fundo...
could sound like he’s asking people in general (or “you” in general)
O treinador pede para nós respirarmos fundo...
clearly says he asks us to breathe deeply

Is the nós before respirarmos really necessary? Can it be omitted?

It’s not strictly necessary; it’s there for clarity and emphasis.

You can say:

O treinador pede para respirarmos fundo antes de começarmos o exercício.

Because the subject is already understood from context (we, the people doing the exercise), Portuguese usually drops the explicit subject pronoun.

You include nós when:

you want to emphasise we (as opposed to someone else), or
you think there might be any ambiguity.

All of these are correct, with slightly different emphasis:

O treinador pede para respirarmos fundo. – normal, neutral
O treinador pede para nós respirarmos fundo. – emphasises we/us

What verb form is respirarmos exactly? It looks like we breathe, but it isn’t.

Respirarmos is the personal infinitive of respirar for the 1st person plural (nós).

For respirar the personal infinitive forms are:

(eu) respirar
(tu) respirares
(ele/ela/você) respirar
(nós) respirarmos
(vós) respirardes
(eles/elas/vocês) respirarem

It looks similar to a finite verb form, but it has no tense (no present, past, future). It is used:

after prepositions (para, antes de, sem, por, etc.)
when you want to show who does the action without using that we / that they.

Compare:

para respirarmos fundo – for us to breathe deeply (personal infinitive)
para que nós respiremos fundo – so that we (may) breathe deeply (present subjunctive)

So respirarmos is not we breathe (present indicative), but for us to breathe.

Why isn’t the subjunctive used, like que nós respiremos?

You can use the subjunctive, but then the structure changes:

O treinador pede que nós respiremos fundo antes de começarmos o exercício.

This is pedir que + subjunctive.

In everyday speech, though, it is more common and natural to say:

pedir para + personal infinitive
O treinador pede para nós respirarmos fundo...

The differences:

pedir para + infinitive – slightly more colloquial, very common in European Portuguese
pedir que + subjunctive – slightly more formal or careful style

Both are correct; the original just uses the more colloquial everyday pattern.

What about começarmos after antes de? Why not antes de começamos or antes de começar?

After antes de, Portuguese normally uses the infinitive, and very often the personal infinitive if the subject is clear:

antes de começarmos o exercício – before we start the exercise

Formally:

Preposition antes de → requires a non‑finite verb (an infinitive)
Because we know it’s we who will start, we use the personal infinitive: começarmos

Compare:

antes de começar o exercício – before starting the exercise (subject left vague)
antes de começarmos o exercício – before we start the exercise (explicit subject)

Antes de começamos is simply wrong; a finite form (present indicative) cannot follow the preposition de.

So the pattern is:

antes de + [infinitive / personal infinitive]
→ antes de começarmos is the correct, natural form.

Is começarmos also a personal infinitive? What are its forms?

Yes. Começarmos is the personal infinitive of começar for nós.

The personal infinitive of começar:

(eu) começar
(tu) começares
(ele/ela/você) começar
(nós) começarmos
(vós) começardes
(eles/elas/vocês) começarem

In the sentence:

antes de começarmos o exercício
= before we start the exercise

So both respirarmos and começarmos are personal infinitives agreeing with nós.

Why is fundo used here to mean deeply? Isn’t fundo an adjective meaning deep?

In Portuguese, some adjectives can also be used adverbially, without changing form. Fundo is one of them.

In this sentence:

respirarmos fundo = to breathe deeply

Here fundo describes how we breathe, so it’s functioning as an adverb, even though its form is the same as the adjective.

You could also say:

respirar profundamente – to breathe deeply (more formal/neutral)
respirar bem fundo – to breathe really deeply (quite colloquial)

Respirar fundo is a very common, idiomatic expression.

Why is it o exercício and not just exercício?

Portuguese uses the definite article o / a / os / as more than English.

o exercício = the exercise (a specific exercise, known to both speaker and listener)

Here they are clearly talking about a particular exercise in the training session, so o is expected.

Using antes de começarmos exercício (without the article) would sound ungrammatical in this context. In Portuguese, singular countable nouns almost always need some determiner:

o exercício (the)
um exercício (an)
este exercício (this), etc.

Could the object pronoun nos be used instead of para nós? For example: O treinador pede-nos para respirarmos fundo...?

Yes. In European Portuguese, this is very natural:

O treinador pede-nos para respirarmos fundo antes de começarmos o exercício.

Here nos is the indirect object pronoun (to us), attached to the verb pede:

pedir algo a alguém → pedir-nos = ask us / ask to us

So you have:

O treinador pede para nós respirarmos fundo...
O treinador pede-nos para respirarmos fundo...

Both are correct. The second one is perhaps even more typical in European Portuguese, because indirect object pronouns (me, te, lhe, nos, vos, lhes) are widely used.

In Brazilian Portuguese, you would more often hear:

O treinador pede para a gente respirar fundo antes de começar o exercício.

Can the subject nós after para and antes de be different? For example, “he asks for them to breathe” / “before they start”?

Yes. One of the main uses of the personal infinitive is precisely to mark different subjects clearly.

For example:

O treinador pede para eles respirarem fundo antes de começarem o exercício.
→ The coach asks them to breathe deeply before they start the exercise.
O treinador pede para os jogadores respirarem fundo antes de começarem o exercício.

Here:

subject of pede: O treinador
subject of respirarem and começarem: eles / os jogadores

So you can easily change nós to eles, vocês, etc., and the verb form will change accordingly:

para eu respirar / antes de eu começar
para tu respirares / antes de tu começares
para eles respirarem / antes de eles começarem, etc.

Could the sentence be phrased with que instead of para and antes de? How would it change?

Yes, you can shift to a more “subjunctive-heavy” construction:

Original:

O treinador pede para nós respirarmos fundo antes de começarmos o exercício.

More formal/subjunctive version:

O treinador pede que nós respiremos fundo antes de começarmos o exercício.

Even more consistent use of the subjunctive (less common, more formal/literary in European Portuguese):

O treinador pede que nós respiremos fundo antes que comecemos o exercício.

Notes:

pedir que + subjunctive is standard and correct.
antes que + subjunctive exists, but in everyday European Portuguese antes de + infinitive/personal infinitive is much more common.

So the original sentence is the most natural in neutral, spoken European Portuguese, while the que + subjunctive versions sound more formal or written.