Breakdown of Enquanto vejo o filme, vou comparando o argumento com o livro e rindo das diferenças.
Questions & Answers about Enquanto vejo o filme, vou comparando o argumento com o livro e rindo das diferenças.
Both are grammatically correct in European Portuguese, but they differ in style and nuance.
Enquanto vejo o filme
Literally: “While I watch the film.”
In Portuguese, the simple present often covers what English expresses with the present continuous (“while I’m watching the film”), especially with time conjunctions like enquanto. It sounds natural, neutral, and is commonly used in writing and speech.Enquanto estou a ver o filme
Literally: “While I am seeing the film.”
This uses the periphrastic progressive (estar a + infinitive), which is very common in European Portuguese for ongoing actions. It slightly emphasizes the ongoing, in-progress nature of the action.
In this sentence, “Enquanto vejo o filme” is a bit more compact and slightly more “bookish”, but perfectly normal in everyday speech too. You could also say “Enquanto estou a ver o filme” without changing the meaning much.
Yes. Portuguese frequently uses the simple present where English uses the present continuous.
- English: “While I’m watching the film…”
- Portuguese: “Enquanto vejo o filme…” or “Enquanto estou a ver o filme…”
Both Portuguese versions are acceptable. The key point is that with words like enquanto (while), quando (when), assim que (as soon as), the simple present is very natural to express actions happening at the same time.
So, you do not have to mirror the English structure with a continuous form every time; the plain present often does the job.
“Vou comparando” is ir + gerúndio, a very common structure that expresses an action that:
- happens gradually, bit by bit, or
- is ongoing and develops over a period of time.
In English, it often corresponds to things like:
- “I keep comparing…”
- “I go on comparing…”
- “I gradually compare…”
So:
“Comparo o argumento com o livro”
= “I compare the plot with the book” (simple, general fact or one-time action).“Vou comparando o argumento com o livro”
= “I keep comparing / I go on comparing / I gradually compare the plot with the book (as the film goes on).”
In the sentence “Enquanto vejo o filme, vou comparando…”, it suggests that as the film progresses, you continuously / repeatedly compare it to the book.
Yes, you could say “vou rindo das diferenças”, and it would be correct, but the nuance changes:
“rindo das diferenças”
This gerund is like an adverbial phrase: “(while) laughing at the differences.”
It just describes something that happens at the same time as the main action.“vou rindo das diferenças”
This uses ir + gerúndio again: “I keep laughing at the differences / I laugh more and more at the differences as time goes by.”
It adds a sense of progression or repetition in the laughing, similar to “vou comparando”.
The original sentence already has “vou comparando” as the main verb structure, so using a simple “rindo” keeps the rhythm nice: one marked progressive action (vou comparando) and one simultaneous action (rindo). Using “vou comparando… e vou rindo…” would also be fine, just a bit heavier stylistically.
No, this is a typical false friend.
- In Portuguese, “o argumento (de um filme / livro)” = the plot, the storyline.
- In English, “argument” usually means a disagreement or a line of reasoning.
So in “vou comparando o argumento com o livro”, you are comparing the plot of the film with the book, not a quarrel.
If you wanted to say “argument” as in a disagreement, you’d use words like:
- discussão, briga, zanga (depending on how strong / emotional),
- or argumento only in a more formal sense of “point, line of argument” in logic or debate, not in everyday “we had an argument”.
Portuguese contracts many prepositions with articles.
Here:
- de + as = das
So:
- de as diferenças → das diferenças
Literally: “laughing of the differences” → in English: “laughing at the differences”.
A few common contractions you’ll see:
- de + o = do
- de + a = da
- de + os = dos
- de + as = das
So “rindo das diferenças” is simply “rindo de + as diferenças” after contraction.
In Portuguese, definite articles (o, a, os, as) are used more frequently than in English.
- o filme = “the film”
- o argumento = “the plot”
- o livro = “the book”
In this sentence, the articles suggest that speaker and listener know which film and which book are being talked about.
Could you omit them?
- “Enquanto vejo filme, vou comparando argumento com livro…”
This sounds unnatural in European Portuguese. You normally need the articles here.
There are cases where you can omit articles (e.g., certain set expressions, some abstract nouns, professions after “ser”), but in this kind of concrete, specific context, keeping the articles is the rule.
Portuguese is a pro-drop language: the subject pronoun is usually omitted when the verb ending already shows who the subject is.
- vejo clearly indicates 1st person singular (eu).
- vou comparando also indicates eu.
- rindo is connected to that same understood subject.
So:
- “Enquanto vejo o filme…” already implies “Enquanto eu vejo o filme…”.
- Adding “eu” is only needed for emphasis or contrast, e.g.:
- “Enquanto eu vejo o filme, tu lês o livro.”
(“While I watch the film, you read the book.”)
- “Enquanto eu vejo o filme, tu lês o livro.”
In neutral sentences like this one, leaving out eu is more natural.
In European Portuguese:
- ver (um filme) = to watch / see a film (the most common choice)
- assistir a (um filme) = literally “to attend / watch a film”
Important: “assistir” needs the preposition “a” when it means “to watch”.
So correct forms:
- Vejo o filme.
- Assisto ao filme. (a + o = ao)
Incorrect:
- ✗ Assisto o filme. (wrong in European Portuguese)
In everyday speech, ver um filme is more common and sounds a bit more casual. Assistir a um filme is also used but often feels a bit more formal or “careful”. In this sentence, “vejo o filme” is the most natural-sounding option.
The comma follows a basic rule of Portuguese punctuation:
- When a subordinate clause (introduced by enquanto, quando, se, etc.) comes first, you normally put a comma before the main clause.
So:
- “Enquanto vejo o filme, vou comparando o argumento com o livro e rindo das diferenças.”
If you invert the order, you usually omit the comma:
- “Vou comparando o argumento com o livro e rindo das diferenças enquanto vejo o filme.”
Both word orders are correct; the original one slightly emphasizes the time frame (“While I’m watching the film…”).
European Portuguese does use the gerund, just less heavily than Brazilian Portuguese in some constructions.
Main points:
The progressive tense is usually “estar a + infinitive” in European Portuguese:
- “Estou a ver o filme.” (EP)
- vs “Estou vendo o filme.” (BR)
But for:
- “ir + gerúndio” (vou comparando, vou aprendendo, vou melhorando)
- adverbial gerunds (rir, dizer, pensar, etc.: rindo, dizendo, pensando)
the gerund is completely normal in EP.
So both:
- “vou comparando” (gradual ongoing action)
- “rindo das diferenças” (describing a simultaneous action)
are standard and natural European Portuguese.
- diferenças is feminine plural:
- singular: a diferença
- plural: as diferenças
The phrase is “rindo das diferenças”:
- de + as diferenças → das diferenças
So:
- as (article) agrees with diferenças (feminine plural).
- The contraction das shows both the preposition de and the article as.
Understanding gender and number helps you parse contractions correctly:
- do = de + o (masculine singular)
- da = de + a (feminine singular)
- dos = de + os (masculine plural)
- das = de + as (feminine plural)
Here, “das” tells you you’re dealing with a feminine plural noun, which matches diferenças.