Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): As crianças olharam para o tubarão como se lhe pudessem falar. - The children looked at the shark as if they could talk to it.

O médico olhou o doente. – The doctor examined the patient.
Olha o carro! – Look at the car! (imperative / exclamation, a bit different structurally)

So for the neutral “looked at the shark”, “olharam para o tubarão” is the standard, natural form.

Could I say “As crianças olharam o tubarão” or “As crianças olharam ao tubarão” instead?

“As crianças olharam o tubarão”
- Grammatically possible, but in modern European Portuguese it sounds unusual for simple “looked at the shark.”
- It suggests more “they examined the shark” or sounds a bit old-fashioned/literary in this context.
“As crianças olharam ao tubarão”
- This is not idiomatic in contemporary Portuguese for “looked at the shark.”
- You’d use “para”, not “a”, after olhar in this sense.

So the natural choice is “olharam para o tubarão”.

Why is it “o tubarão” and not just “tubarão” without the article?

Portuguese uses the definite article much more than English:

olharam para o tubarão – looked at *the shark*

If the shark is specific (the one in the tank, the one they were already talking about, etc.), Portuguese almost always uses “o” here.

You can drop the article mainly in more generic or label-like uses:

Tubarão é um animal perigoso. – A shark is a dangerous animal / Sharks are dangerous animals.
On signs or headings: Entrada, Cozinha, etc.

In this sentence, we’re talking about one specific shark, so “o tubarão” is the normal form.

What does “como se” do here, and why does it trigger the subjunctive?

“Como se” means “as if”. In Portuguese, “como se” almost always introduces something that is hypothetical, unreal, or only imagined.

Because it introduces an unreal comparison, Portuguese uses the subjunctive in that clause:

como se (eles) lhe pudessem falar – as if they could talk to it

Using the indicative (“como se podiam falar”) would sound wrong to a native speaker; it would suggest the situation is real, which clashes with the as if idea. The subjunctive marks it as unreal or imagined.

Why is it “pudessem” and not “podiam” after “como se”?

“pudessem” is the imperfect subjunctive of poder.
“podiam” is the imperfect indicative.

After “como se”, when you’re describing an unreal or imagined situation, Portuguese requires the subjunctive:

✅ como se pudessem falar – as if they could talk (but they can’t really)
❌ como se podiam falar – ungrammatical / sounds wrong in this context

So “pudessem” is there because of “como se”, not because of tense alone.

Why use the past subjunctive “pudessem” when the idea feels more “present” (as if they could talk now)?

The imperfect subjunctive in Portuguese is often used for unreal or hypothetical situations, even when the time feels “present” from an English perspective.

So:

Olharam para o tubarão como se lhe pudessem falar.
→ They looked at the shark (completed past action) as if they could talk to it (hypothetical/unreal possibility at that moment).

The main verb “olharam” is in the pretérito perfeito (simple past), so using the imperfect subjunctive “pudessem” matches that past time frame while still indicating unreality.

In English we often use a “present” form after as if (“as if they could”), but in Portuguese the sequence past main verb + imperfect subjunctive is the normal way to express this.

What exactly does “lhe” refer to here, and why is it used?

“Lhe” is an indirect object pronoun meaning roughly “to him / to her / to it / to you (formal)”.

In this sentence:

falar a alguém – to talk to someone
falar ao tubarão – to talk to the shark
falar-lhe – to talk to it/him/her

So “lhe” stands for “ao tubarão” (to the shark).
You could make it more explicit:

…como se pudessem falar ao tubarão. – as if they could talk to the shark.

The pronoun “lhe” is just the pronominal form of that indirect object.

Could I say “como se pudessem falar-lhe” instead of “como se lhe pudessem falar”?

Yes, both are possible in European Portuguese, but there is a grammatical nuance:

“como se lhe pudessem falar”
- “lhe” comes before the finite verb “pudessem” (proclisis).
- This is very natural because “como se” strongly attracts the pronoun to come before the verb.
“como se pudessem falar-lhe”
- Here the pronoun attaches to the infinitive “falar” (“falar-lhe”).
- This is also acceptable and sounds a bit more formal/written.

In everyday European Portuguese, “como se lhe pudessem falar” is probably the more common-sounding version, but “como se pudessem falar-lhe” is grammatically correct.

Why is it “lhe” and not “o” or “o tubarão” after “falar”?

Because “falar” in the sense of talk to someone takes an indirect object:

falar a alguém / com alguém – to speak to/with someone

So you need the indirect pronoun “lhe”, not a direct object pronoun like “o”:

✅ falar-lhe – to speak to him/her/it
❌ falar-o – incorrect with this meaning

If you actually changed the verb to one that takes a direct object, the pronoun would change:

ver o tubarão → vê-lo – to see it (direct object)

But with falar, the complement is indirect, so “lhe” is the right choice.

Can “lhe” really refer to a shark? I thought it was only for people.

Yes, “lhe” can refer to animals or things as well as people. It just means “to it” here:

Falei ao cão. / Falei-lhe. – I spoke to the dog. / I spoke to it.
Escrevi ao banco. / Escrevi-lhe. – I wrote to the bank. / I wrote to it.

In practice, it’s more common with people, but grammatically there’s no restriction: it simply replaces “a(o) + noun” as an indirect object, regardless of whether the noun is a person, animal, or thing.

Why is it “olharam” and not “olhavam”? What’s the difference?

Both are past tenses, but they have different aspects:

olharam – pretérito perfeito (simple past, completed action)
- Suggests a single, complete event: they looked (once / as a whole action).
olhavam – pretérito imperfeito (imperfect past)
- Suggests a continuous, repeated, or background action: they were looking / used to look.

In your sentence, we’re describing one completed act of looking, which is why “olharam” (pretérito perfeito) fits best.

You could use “olhavam” in a different context, e.g.:

As crianças olhavam para o tubarão como se lhe pudessem falar, enquanto os pais tiravam fotos.
– The children were looking at the shark as if they could talk to it, while the parents were taking photos.