Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Quando conto um sonho engraçado, o Pedro ri como se estivesse a ver um filme de comédia. - When I tell a funny dream, Pedro laughs as if he were watching a comedy film.

Quando conto um sonho engraçado, o Pedro ri como se estivesse a ver um filme de comédia.

When I tell a funny dream, Pedro laughs as if he were watching a comedy film.

Breakdown of Quando conto um sonho engraçado, o Pedro ri como se estivesse a ver um filme de comédia.

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Questions & Answers about Quando conto um sonho engraçado, o Pedro ri como se estivesse a ver um filme de comédia.

Why is conto in the present tense here? Could I say Quando contei or Quando contava instead?

Conto is the simple present (1st person singular of contar – to tell).

Here, Quando conto um sonho engraçado… means “Whenever I tell / When I (usually) tell a funny dream…”. In Portuguese, the present tense is very often used for:

Habits / repeated actions:
- Quando conto um sonho engraçado, o Pedro ri… = Whenever I tell a funny dream, Pedro laughs…

If you change the tense, the meaning changes:

Quando contei um sonho engraçado, o Pedro riu.
- Contei = simple past.
- This means “(On that occasion) when I told a funny dream, Pedro laughed.”
- It refers to one specific past event, not a general habit.
Quando contava um sonho engraçado, o Pedro ria.
- Contava = past imperfect.
- This sounds like “Whenever I used to tell a funny dream, Pedro used to laugh.”
- It suggests a repeated or ongoing situation in the past, not something that’s still true now.

So in the original sentence, conto is used because we’re talking about something that is still a general, habitual fact.

Why don’t we say eu conto? Why is the subject pronoun eu omitted?

In Portuguese (both European and Brazilian), the verb ending usually shows the subject, so the subject pronoun is often dropped.

(Eu) conto = I tell
The ending -o in conto already tells you it’s 1st person singular.

You normally only use eu when you want to:

Emphasize the subject:
- Eu conto os sonhos, não tu.
  I’m the one who tells the dreams, not you.
Contrast it with another subject:
- Eu conto um sonho e o Pedro ri.
  I tell a dream and Pedro laughs.

In your sentence, there is no contrast or special emphasis, so native speakers naturally say:

Quando conto um sonho engraçado…
and not necessarily Quando eu conto…

Why is it um sonho engraçado and not um engraçado sonho?

In Portuguese, most descriptive adjectives (like funny, beautiful, interesting) normally come after the noun:

um sonho engraçado = a funny dream
um livro interessante = an interesting book
uma casa bonita = a beautiful house

Before the noun, adjectives often:

Sound more literary or poetic, or
Change their nuance slightly.

Um engraçado sonho is not wrong, but it sounds:

More marked / stylistic (poetic, literary, or very expressive), and
Can feel like you are highlighting the adjective, almost like “such a funny dream” or “what a funny dream”.

In everyday, neutral speech, people would almost always say:

um sonho engraçado

Could sonho also mean “I dream”? How do I know sonho here means “a dream” (noun) and not the verb?

Portuguese has some forms that look the same in different roles, and sonho is one of them:

sonho (noun) = dream
- um sonho = a dream
sonho (verb) = I dream (1st person singular of sonhar – to dream)
- Eu sonho = I dream

In this sentence:

conto um sonho engraçado
You see um (indefinite article, a/an) before sonho.
That shows sonho is a noun: a dream.

If sonho were a verb here, it would stand alone as the main verb of the clause, not be preceded by um.

Why do we say o Pedro with the definite article? Can we just say Pedro ri…?

In European Portuguese, it’s very common to use the definite article with people’s first names:

O Pedro, a Ana, o João, a Maria

So:

O Pedro ri… = Pedro laughs… (natural, everyday EP)
Without the article: Pedro ri… also exists, but in EP it can sound:
- A bit more formal, or
- Written style, or
- Influenced by Brazilian usage / careful speech.

In Brazilian Portuguese, using the article with names is much less common in standard speech, so they’d typically say:

Pedro ri… (without o)

In Portugal, in casual conversation, o Pedro is perfectly normal and probably more frequent than Pedro on its own.

Why is there a comma after Quando conto um sonho engraçado?

The sentence has this structure:

Quando conto um sonho engraçado,
o Pedro ri como se estivesse a ver um filme de comédia.

Quando conto um sonho engraçado is a subordinate clause of time (“when I tell a funny dream”). In Portuguese:

If a subordinate clause comes first, you normally put a comma before the main clause.

So:

✔ Quando conto um sonho engraçado, o Pedro ri…
✔ O Pedro ri quando conto um sonho engraçado. (no comma, because the subordinate comes second)

This is just standard punctuation for sentences where the time clause precedes the main clause.

Why is it ri and not ri-se or está a rir?

All of these exist, but with different nuances.

ri (from rir) – simple present
- o Pedro ri = Pedro laughs
- Neutral and correct.
ri-se (from rir-se) – reflexive / pronominal form
- o Pedro ri-se = Pedro laughs
- In European Portuguese, rir-se is very common in speech.
- o Pedro ri and o Pedro ri-se both mean essentially the same thing; ri-se can feel a bit more colloquial, depending on region and speaker.
está a rir – present continuous
- o Pedro está a rir = Pedro is laughing (right now)
- Focuses on an ongoing action at this exact moment.

In your sentence:

o Pedro ri como se estivesse a ver…
The idea is a general reaction / habit: whenever you tell a funny dream, he laughs (like he were watching a comedy film).

So the simple present ri fits best.

You could also hear:

o Pedro ri-se como se estivesse a ver… (very natural in EP)

But está a rir would change the meaning towards a specific moment (“he is laughing right now as if he were watching…”), not the general pattern described by quando conto….

What exactly does como se mean here, and why do we use estivesse (subjunctive) after it?

Como se literally means “as if”.

o Pedro ri como se estivesse a ver um filme de comédia
= Pedro laughs as if he were watching a comedy film.

In Portuguese, como se often introduces a comparison that is not literally true (a kind of imagined or unreal situation). For these unreal / hypothetical comparisons, Portuguese normally uses the subjunctive, especially the imperfect subjunctive.

estivesse is the imperfect subjunctive of estar.

So:

como se estivesse a ver… = as if he were watching… (unreal comparison)

If you used the normal indicative:

como se está a ver um filme de comédia
sounds odd / incorrect in this context, because it suggests he really is watching a film, not just “as if”.

So the pattern is:

como se
- imperfect subjunctive (estivesse, fosse, fizesse, etc.)
  when you’re describing a not-real, imagined comparison:
  - Ele fala comigo como se fosse meu chefe.
    He talks to me as if he were my boss.

Why is it estivesse a ver and not just estivesse a ver vs está a ver or estivesse vendo?

Several things are happening here:

Subjunctive vs indicative

estivesse a ver = imperfect subjunctive (were watching)
Needed after como se for an unreal comparison.
está a ver = present indicative (is watching)
Would sound like he really is watching a film, not as if.

So estivesse is chosen because of como se (see previous answer).

“a ver” vs “vendo”

In European Portuguese, the progressive (continuous) form is usually:

estar a + infinitive
- estar a ver, estar a comer, estar a ler

Using the -ndo form (vendo, comendo) for the progressive is typical of Brazilian Portuguese in everyday speech.

So, in European Portuguese:

estivesse a ver is the natural form.
estivesse vendo would sound Brazilian or at least unusual in Portugal.

Why not just estivesse a ver um filme without a ver?
You need a ver because estar by itself doesn’t mean to watch; you need the verb ver:

estivesse a ver = were watching.
estivesse um filme is not grammatical.

Why do we say um filme de comédia and not um filme de comédias or just uma comédia?

Um filme de comédia is a very natural way, especially in European Portuguese, to say “a comedy film / a comedy movie”:

filme = film / movie
de comédia = of comedy, belonging to the comedy genre

You have a few options, each with slightly different flavour:

um filme de comédia
- Very common and neutral: a comedy film.
uma comédia
- Often means “a comedy (film or play)” by itself.
- Fui ver uma comédia. = I went to see a comedy (movie/play).
- You could rewrite your sentence as:
  - …como se estivesse a ver uma comédia.
    Also natural.
um filme de comédias
- Sounds wrong or at least very odd; comédia is a genre, so it’s normally singular when used like this.
um filme cómico / um filme engraçado
- Grammatically fine: a funny film.
- But they emphasize the film itself being funny, rather than saying clearly it’s a comedy genre.

In your sentence, um filme de comédia clearly points to “a film of the comedy genre”, which matches the idea that he laughs as if watching a (typical) comedy movie.

Could we say Sempre que conto um sonho engraçado instead of Quando conto um sonho engraçado? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can say Sempre que conto um sonho engraçado, o Pedro ri…, and it’s very natural.

Quando conto um sonho engraçado…
- Often already implies habit / whenever in context.
Sempre que conto um sonho engraçado…
- Makes the “every time / whenever” meaning even more explicit.

The difference is very small:

Quando = when
Sempre que = whenever / every time that

In this sentence, both are good; sempre que just highlights that it happens every time you tell a funny dream.