Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Caso não consigas votar no domingo, ainda podes ir à votação antecipada. - If you can’t vote on Sunday, you can still go to the early voting.

caso
- subjunctive often sounds a bit more formal or written than se.
You could also say: Se não conseguires votar no domingo… (more common in speech).

So:

caso não consigas ≈ se não conseguires / se não conseguires vir a votar
All express a hypothetical situation: “if you can’t vote on Sunday…”

Why is it consigas and not consegues?

Consigas is present subjunctive, used because the situation is uncertain / hypothetical and is introduced by caso.

consegues = present indicative (fact, routine, something assumed to be real)
consigas = present subjunctive (doubt, possibility, condition, wish)

With caso, Portuguese normally requires the subjunctive:

✅ Caso não consigas votar no domingo…
❌ Caso não consegues votar no domingo… (ungrammatical)

If you switched to se, you’d normally use the future subjunctive:

✅ Se não conseguires votar no domingo…

Exactly what tense and mood is consigas, and how is it formed?

Consigas is 2nd person singular (tu), present subjunctive of conseguir.

Present subjunctive for conseguir:

eu consiga
tu consigas
ele/ela/você consiga
nós consigamos
vocês / eles / elas consigam

It’s formed from the 1st person singular present indicative:

eu consigo → remove -o → consig- → add subjunctive endings:
- -a, -as, -a, -amos, -am → consiga, consigas…

What is the function and meaning of ainda here?

Ainda here means “still” / “yet” / “even then”, in the sense of “you can still (nevertheless) do X”.

ainda podes ir à votação antecipada =
“you can still / you nevertheless can go to early voting”

It implies that not voting on Sunday does not remove your chance to vote; there is another option available.

Can ainda go in a different place in the sentence?

Yes, but some positions are more natural:

Most natural in European Portuguese:
- Ainda podes ir à votação antecipada.

You can also say:

Podes ainda ir à votação antecipada. (possible, a bit more formal or emphatic)

You would not normally split it like:

❌ Podes ir ainda à votação antecipada. (sounds odd here)

So, keep ainda right before the verb (ainda podes) for the most natural feel in this sentence.

Why is it no domingo and not just domingo or something else?

No domingo is “on Sunday” referring to a specific Sunday (the election Sunday).

no = em + o (in/on + the)
no domingo = on the Sunday (that we both know about)

Compare:

Voto no domingo. = I vote on Sunday (this particular coming Sunday).
Voto aos domingos. = I vote on Sundays (every Sunday, in general).
Votar ao domingo é obrigatório. = Voting on Sundays is mandatory. (habitual/general)

So no domingo is correct here because it’s one known Sunday, not a repeated or generic habit.

Why isn’t domingo capitalized, like “Sunday” in English?

In Portuguese (both Portugal and Brazil), days of the week are not capitalized unless they are at the start of a sentence or part of a title:

domingo, segunda-feira, terça-feira, etc.
Domingo only with a capital D if it is the first word of the sentence or in a title.

So no domingo in the middle of a sentence is correctly in lower case.

What does ir à votação antecipada literally mean, and how does it differ from just saying votar antecipadamente?

Literally:

ir à votação antecipada = “go to the early voting (process/event)”
ir = to go
a = to
a votação antecipada = the early voting

Votar antecipadamente = “to vote early” (using an adverb: early).

Difference:

ir à votação antecipada focuses on going to the official early voting event/place.
votar antecipadamente focuses more on the action of voting early, not so much on the “event” as a noun.

Both can be correct, but votação antecipada sounds like the official name of the procedure (as used in instructions, government info, etc.), which fits the context of elections in Portugal.

Why is it à votação with an accent, and what does that contraction mean?

À is the contraction of the preposition a (to) + the feminine definite article a (the):

a (to) + a (the) → à

So:

ir à votação = go to the vote / voting (event)

We use the accent (à) to mark this crasis (merging of the two a’s).
Without the accent, a votação would be just “the voting” (subject or object), not “to the voting”.

Is votação feminine, and how can I tell?

Yes, votação is feminine:

a votação, uma votação, esta votação

Clues:

Many nouns ending in -ção (-tion in English) are feminine:
- a situação, a eleição, a informação, a votação

That’s why you see à votação (a + a) and not ao votação (which would be masculine).

Is ir à votação the usual way to say “go vote”, or would ir votar be more natural?

Both are used, but they focus slightly differently:

ir votar = go vote (focus on the act of voting)
ir à votação = go to the vote / voting (focus on the event/procedure)

In everyday speech, people often say:

Se não conseguires votar no domingo, ainda podes ir votar antes.
Ainda podes ir votar antecipadamente.

Ir à votação antecipada sounds a bit more formal/administrative, and it matches how institutions talk about an official votação antecipada process.

Why is it podes and not pode? What person and register is used here?

Podes is 2nd person singular (tu) of poder in the present indicative:

tu podes = you can (informal, singular)

Pode can be:

ele/ela/você pode = he/she/you (formal) can

In European Portuguese:

tu (with forms like podes, consigas, consegues) is informal, used with friends, family, people of similar age.
você (with pode, consiga) is more formal or distant.

So this sentence is talking to one person informally, probably a friend, family member, or someone your age:

ainda podes ir… = you (informal singular) can still go…

Could we use a future subjunctive like caso não conseguires votar instead of caso não consigas votar?

With caso, the present subjunctive (não consigas) is the standard and most natural choice.

Portuguese future subjunctive is very common after se, quando, logo que, enquanto, etc.:

Se não conseguires votar no domingo…
Quando fores votar…

With caso, speakers normally use:

caso
- present subjunctive → caso não consigas votar…

You might occasionally see caso + future subjunctive, but it tends to sound unusual or legalistic.
For normal usage, stick to:

Caso não consigas votar no domingo…
or
Se não conseguires votar no domingo…