Breakdown of Nós vamos torcer por ti no exame.
Questions & Answers about Nós vamos torcer por ti no exame.
You’re right that the basic, literal meaning of torcer is “to twist / to wring,” as in:
- Torcer a roupa – to wring the clothes
- Torci o tornozelo – I twisted my ankle
In this sentence, though, torcer por alguém is an idiomatic expression meaning “to root for / to cheer for / to be pulling for someone.”
So:
- Nós vamos torcer por ti no exame.
→ We’ll be rooting for you in the exam.
This figurative meaning is very common and fully natural in European Portuguese.
In European Portuguese, when torcer means “to support / to root for,” it normally takes por:
- Torcer por alguém / por uma equipa – to root for someone / for a team
- Estou a torcer por ti. – I’m rooting for you.
- Torço pelo Benfica. – I support Benfica.
You will see torcer para more often in Brazilian Portuguese in this sense, especially in speech (torcer para o Flamengo etc.). In Portugal, torcer por (or torcer pelo / pela) is the standard choice.
So for European Portuguese, you should treat torcer por as the “correct” pattern for “to root for.”
In Portuguese, the form of “you” (singular, informal) changes depending on its role in the sentence:
tu – subject form (like “you” as the doer of the action)
- Tu estudas muito. – You study a lot.
ti – stressed form after a preposition (like “for you,” “to you,” “with you”)
- para ti – for you
- de ti – about you / from you
- por ti – for you / on your behalf
In torcer por ti, por is a preposition, so you must use ti, not tu.
So:
- ✅ Vamos torcer por ti.
- ❌ Vamos torcer por tu. (ungrammatical)
Grammatically, yes: por você is correct Portuguese. But in Portugal the pronoun você is much less common than tu.
- tu / ti – normal informal “you” between friends, family, people of similar age
- você – can sound distant, cold, or even slightly rude in many contexts in Portugal; more frequent in some regions and in written instructions, advertising, etc.
So:
- Vamos torcer por ti no exame. – natural between friends/family.
- Vamos torcer por você no exame. – might feel distant or out of place in many European Portuguese contexts.
If you’re aiming for everyday Portuguese in Portugal, prefer tu / ti with people you’re close to, and avoid você unless you really know how it’s used socially in that region or context.
No is a contraction of the preposition em (“in / on / at”) plus the masculine singular definite article o (“the”):
- em + o → no
- em + a → na
- em + os → nos
- em + as → nas
So:
- no exame = em + o exame → “in the exam”
- na aula = em + a aula → “in the class”
- nos livros = em + os livros → “in the books”
In normal speech and writing you almost always use the contracted form (no, na, etc.), not em o, em a, and so on.
Both are possible; they just differ in how specific/personal they sound.
- no exame – “in the exam,” where the context already makes it clear whose exam we’re talking about (yours).
- no teu exame – “in your exam,” slightly more explicit and personal.
Examples:
Nós vamos torcer por ti no exame.
→ We’ll be rooting for you in the exam (we both know which exam we mean).Nós vamos torcer por ti no teu exame de matemática.
→ More explicit: We’ll be rooting for you in your maths exam.
Leaving out teu is very normal if it’s obvious from context that we’re talking about your exam.
Yes, absolutely. In Portuguese, subject pronouns are often omitted because the verb ending already shows the person:
- (Nós) vamos torcer por ti no exame.
The form vamos clearly marks “we”, so nós is optional.
Including nós can:
- add emphasis on we, or
- make the sentence sound slightly more explicit or expressive.
Both versions are correct:
- Nós vamos torcer por ti no exame.
- Vamos torcer por ti no exame.
Yes, vamos torcer expresses a future action. It’s a periphrastic future formed with ir (to go) + infinitive:
- Nós vamos torcer por ti. – We’re going to root for you / We will root for you.
You can also use the synthetic future iremos:
- Iremos torcer por ti no exame.
Differences:
Vamos torcer
- Very common and natural in speech.
- Often feels more immediate and conversational (like English “we’re going to…” or “we’ll…”).
Iremos torcer
- Grammatically correct but more formal, literary, or emphatic.
- Much less common in everyday spoken European Portuguese.
In normal spoken Portuguese from Portugal, (Nós) vamos torcer por ti is what you’ll hear most.
The core idea is similar, but there are some tendencies:
In Portugal (European Portuguese):
- torcer por alguém / por uma equipa is standard:
- Estou a torcer por ti.
- Torço pelo Porto.
- The progressive is usually estar a + infinitive:
- Estamos a torcer por ti.
- torcer por alguém / por uma equipa is standard:
In Brazil (Brazilian Portuguese):
- torcer para is very frequent:
- Torço para o Flamengo.
- The progressive is estar + gerúndio:
- Estamos torcendo por você.
- torcer para is very frequent:
Your sentence Nós vamos torcer por ti no exame is perfectly natural European Portuguese (and understandable in Brazil, though a Brazilian might more often say por você or para você and use no vestibular, na prova, etc., depending on the context).
Approximate IPA (European Portuguese):
- Nós – [nɔʃ] (final -s like English “sh”)
- vamos – [ˈvɐ.muʃ] (first vowel like the “a” in about; final -s again like “sh”)
- torcer – [toɾˈseɾ] (soft flapped r in the middle; final r often weak or almost silent in many accents)
- por – [poɾ] or [puɾ] depending on accent (the r is often guttural or weak)
- ti – [ti] (like “chee” but with a clearer t, not “ch,” in most European accents)
- no – [nu] or [no], depending on accent
- exame – [ɨˈzɐm(ɨ)] (the first vowel [ɨ] is the very reduced European schwa-like sound; final e often very reduced or almost absent)
Spoken naturally, the words link together, with some reduction:
Nós vamos torcer por ti no exame.
[nɔʃ ˈvɐ.muʃ toɾˈseɾ puɾ ˈti nu ɨˈzɐm] (approx.)
The most important takeaway:
- final -s often sounds like sh in Portugal (nós, vamos).
- unstressed vowels (like the e in exame) are often very reduced.