Breakdown of Ser racional não significa ignorar as emoções dos outros.
Questions & Answers about Ser racional não significa ignorar as emoções dos outros.
Portuguese very often uses the infinitive as a subject of the sentence, just like English uses -ing:
- Ser racional não significa…
= Being rational does not mean…
Literally, Ser racional is functioning as “To be rational / Being rational” in a general, abstract sense. You could say:
- Ser uma pessoa racional não significa… – more explicit: Being a rational person does not mean…
- Quando se é racional, isso não significa… – When one is rational, that doesn’t mean…
But the original Ser racional is the most natural, concise, general way to express this idea.
Ser is used for permanent or characteristic qualities, estar for temporary states.
- ser racional = to be a rational person (a trait / way of thinking)
- estar racional would sound odd; it would suggest a temporary, unusual state.
Because being rational here is presented as a general quality or stance, ser is the only natural choice.
With verbs like significar, Portuguese often uses a bare infinitive to express what something does or doesn’t mean:
- Ser racional não significa ignorar as emoções…
= Being rational does not mean ignoring the emotions…
Alternatives:
- Ser racional não significa que ignoras as emoções dos outros.
= …does not mean that you ignore… (more direct “you”) - Ser racional não significa que se devam ignorar as emoções dos outros.
= …does not mean that one should ignore… (impersonal “one”)
The infinitive ignorar is the most neutral and impersonal; it matches the abstract tone of Ser racional.
racional is usually a close match to English rational:
- logical, guided by reason
- not purely emotional or impulsive
But in Portuguese, depending on context, racional can sometimes lean toward “rational / analytical / cold-minded” rather than simply “reasonable”.
There is also razoável (= reasonable, fair, sensible), which is softer:
- uma decisão racional – a rational (logical, reason-based) decision
- uma decisão razoável – a reasonable, fair decision
In this sentence, Ser racional clearly refers to thinking logically, not to disregarding feelings.
Portuguese uses definite articles with general nouns much more often than English does.
- as emoções dos outros
literally: the emotions of the others
but in meaning: other people’s emotions / people’s emotions in general
If you said just emoções dos outros (no as), it would sound incomplete or oddly bare. In standard European Portuguese, for general concepts:
- Gosto de ouvir as opiniões das pessoas.
- As emoções são importantes.
So here as emoções is the natural, generic way to talk about “emotions” as a category.
dos outros = de + os + outros:
- literally: of the others
- meaning: of other people / other persons
It is very close in meaning to:
- de outras pessoas – of other people
Nuance:
- as emoções dos outros – very natural, slightly more compact.
- as emoções de outras pessoas – fully explicit that we mean “other people”.
Both are correct. os outros in this context is clearly “other people” (not “other things”).
Yes. dos is a standard Portuguese contraction:
- de + os = dos
- de + as = das
So:
- as emoções dos outros
= as emoções de + os outros
= the emotions of the others / other people’s emotions
More examples:
- o livro dos alunos = o livro de + os alunos
- as casas das famílias = as casas de + as famílias
You can say as emoções de outros, but:
- as emoções dos outros is more natural and more common.
- de outros (without article) can sound a bit more vague or stylistic, and you’d usually want to specify what “others” are:
- de outras pessoas
- de outros indivíduos
So for everyday speech and neutral writing, as emoções dos outros is the preferred form.
Both are grammatically possible, but they don’t feel the same:
- as emoções dos outros – “other people’s emotions” in general, as a set of different feelings. This is the most natural here.
- a emoção dos outros – “the emotion of others” as a single, collective emotion; it sounds odd in this context.
Because we’re talking about feelings in general (sadness, joy, fear, etc.), the plural emoções is the usual and idiomatic choice.
They are very close in this context:
- Ser racional não significa ignorar as emoções dos outros.
- Ser racional não quer dizer ignorar as emoções dos outros.
Both mean: Being rational does not mean ignoring other people’s emotions.
Nuance:
- significar is slightly more formal and abstract.
- querer dizer is very common in speech and informal writing, a bit more conversational.
In European Portuguese, querer dizer is extremely frequent; using significar here sounds a bit more “written” or didactic.
Approximate IPA (European Portuguese):
- Ser racional não significa ignorar as emoções dos outros
/ˈseʁ ʁɐ.si.ɔˈnaɫ nɐ̃w̃ si.ɡni.fiˈka i.ɡnuˈɾaɾ ɐz e.muˈsõj̃ʃ duz ˈo.tɾuʃ/
Notes:
- Ser: /seʁ/ (final r guttural in most of Portugal).
- racional: stress on the last syllable: ra-ci-o-NAL.
- não: nasal vowel /ɐ̃w̃/.
- significa: sig-ni-FI-ca.
- ignorar: i-gno-RAR (final r pronounced /ʁ/).
- emoções: e-mo-ÇÕES, nasal diphthong /õj̃ʃ/ at the end.
- dos outros: /duz ˈo.tɾuʃ/ (final s often “sh”-like: /ʃ/).
In practice, no, not without sounding very unnatural or changing the structure a lot.
- Ser racional não significa ignorar as emoções dos outros. – natural order.
- Ser racional não significa dos outros ignorar as emoções. – grammatically possible but sounds very awkward and poetic at best.
The usual, neutral word order is:
[Infinitive as subject] + não significa + [infinitive verb phrase + complements]
So the original order is the only really natural one for standard speech and writing.