Breakdown of Ela diz, sinceramente, que todos temos defeitos e qualidades.
Questions & Answers about Ela diz, sinceramente, que todos temos defeitos e qualidades.
The commas show that sinceramente is an interruption in the sentence, like a parenthetical comment:
- Ela diz, sinceramente, que… ≈ “She says, honestly, that…”
With commas, sinceramente comments on how she is speaking, and it sounds like a side remark.
You can write it without commas:
- Ela diz sinceramente que…
Then sinceramente is more tightly attached to diz, and the sentence feels a bit more neutral and less “inserted”. Both versions are grammatically correct; the one with commas just sounds a bit more expressive or emphatic, especially in writing.
Yes. All of these are possible, with slightly different emphasis:
Sinceramente, ela diz que todos temos defeitos e qualidades.
“Honestly, she says that we all have flaws and qualities.”
→ Emphasises the speaker’s attitude from the start.Ela diz que todos temos defeitos e qualidades, sinceramente.
→ Feels more like an afterthought: “she says that we all have flaws and qualities, honestly.”Ela sinceramente diz que todos temos defeitos e qualidades.
→ Grammatically fine, but less common and a bit heavier in style.
The original version (Ela diz, sinceramente, que…) is very natural in European Portuguese.
You would not normally say Ela fala, sinceramente, que….
dizer = “to say / to tell (something specific)”
→ Ela diz que… = “She says that…”falar = “to speak / to talk (in general, or about a topic)
→ Ela fala sinceramente sobre o assunto. = “She speaks honestly about the subject.”
After que, you normally use dizer (or verbs like afirmar, explicar):
- Ela diz que todos temos defeitos e qualidades. ✅
- Ela fala que todos temos defeitos e qualidades. ❌ (sounds wrong in European Portuguese; in Brazil, it can be accepted in some regions, but even there dizer is safer).
In Portuguese, the simple present is used a lot more than in English for:
- general statements
- reporting what someone says
- “narrative present”
So:
- Ela diz que todos temos defeitos e qualidades.
= “She says that we all have flaws and qualities.” (habitual / typical for her, or true now)
If you say:
- Ela está a dizer que todos temos defeitos e qualidades.
that focuses more on right now, in this moment (she is currently saying it). The original sentence sounds more like a general report of what she (typically) says.
In Portuguese, subject pronouns are often dropped because the verb ending shows the person:
- temos already tells you it’s we (1st person plural).
So:
- que todos temos… = “that we all have…”
- que todos nós temos… = “that we all have…”, but with a bit more emphasis on we.
Todos temos is very natural and slightly more compact. Todos nós temos is also correct and just a bit more emphatic or contrastive: “all of us (as opposed to others) have…”.
Context decides, but grammatically todos here equals todos nós (“all of us”).
Possible readings:
“She says, honestly, that we all have flaws and qualities.”
(the speaker includes themselves and the listener)More generally, it can also mean “everyone (all people) has flaws and qualities”, like a general truth.
If you want to make “everyone” very explicit, you can also say:
- Ela diz, sinceramente, que toda a gente tem defeitos e qualidades.
(toda a gente = everyone, lit. “all the people”)
Yes, que temos todos defeitos e qualidades is grammatically correct, but:
- que todos temos defeitos e qualidades is more common and flows more naturally.
- temos todos can sound slightly more formal or emphasised.
So, in everyday European Portuguese, todos temos is usually preferred.
In Portuguese, que can introduce a clause in the indicative or subjunctive, depending on the verb and meaning.
With dizer:
When reporting a statement / belief / fact, use indicative:
→ Ela diz que todos temos defeitos e qualidades.
“She says that we all have flaws and qualities.” (she presents it as a fact)When reporting a command / request, you often use subjunctive:
→ Ela diz que todos tenhamos cuidado.
“She tells us that we should all be careful.” (reported instruction/wish)
So here, it’s a statement of a general truth, so temos (indicative) is correct.
Todos is masculine plural. It’s used when:
- the group is mixed (men and women), or
- the gender is not specified, or
- you want a generic “everyone / we all”.
Portuguese defaults to the masculine plural when the group is mixed or general:
- todos = all (masculine or mixed)
- todas = all (exclusively feminine group)
So if she’s speaking about “all people” in general, todos is the normal choice.
Portuguese often uses the plural for abstract characteristics, especially when talking about people’s traits:
- temos defeitos e qualidades
≈ “we have flaws and good qualities (plural in idea)”
You could say temos defeito e qualidade, but:
- it sounds odd and less idiomatic;
- it feels like you’re talking about “one defect and one quality” per person, which is not the intended meaning.
The plural here makes it clear that people usually have various flaws and various good qualities.
In European Portuguese (PT‑PT), roughly:
- Ela → É-la (stress on É)
- diz → like “deez” (short, no final z sound, just s)
- sinceramente → sin-se-ra-MEN-te (stress on MEN)
- que → reduced, almost like “k(ɨ)” (very short, often just /k/)
- todos → TO-dush (stress on TO, final s sounds like English “sh”)
- temos → TE-mush (stress on TE, final s like “sh”)
- defeitos → de-FEI-tush (stress on FEI)
- e → like “ee” but very short
- qualidades → kwa-li-DA-dish (stress on DA, final s like “sh”)
So the main stresses: Éla DIZ, sin-se-ra-MEN-te, que TO-dush TE-mush de-FEI-tush i kwa-li-DA-dish.
It’s a subordinate noun clause (a “that-clause”) functioning as the direct object of diz.
- Main clause: Ela diz → “She says”
- Direct object (what she says): que todos temos defeitos e qualidades → “that we all have flaws and qualities”
So structurally:
Ela diz [que todos temos defeitos e qualidades].