Archaeological excavations demand immense patience. You might sift through the soil for weeks before finding a single artifact. When you want to express that an action continues until someone completes a specific task or an event occurs, you can set a temporal limit using até (until) alongside a uniquely Portuguese verb form: the personal infinitive.
The Personal Infinitive
Unlike in English, Portuguese allows you to conjugate infinitive verbs to show exactly who is performing the action. This is called the personal infinitive (infinitivo pessoal). You form it by adding specific endings directly to the full infinitive (such as desenterrar or chegar):
- eu: (no ending)
- tu: -es
- ele/ela/você: (no ending)
- nós: -mos
- vocês/eles/elas: -em
Temporal Limits: até + Infinitivo Pessoal
To say "until [someone] does [something]", pair the preposition até with the personal infinitive.
| The archaeologists work in the trench until they unearth the fossil. | Os arqueólogos trabalham na trincheira até desenterrarem o fóssil. |
| We excavate with the shovel until we find an ancient fragment. | Escavamos com a pá até encontrarmos um fragmento milenar. |
Notice how the infinitive changes depending on the subject of the "until" clause. In the first example, desenterrar becomes desenterrarem because the subject is eles (the archaeologists). In the second, encontrar becomes encontrarmos because the implied subject is nós.
| You need perseverance until you unearth the ancient fossil. | Tu precisas de perseverança até desenterrares o fóssil milenar. |
This structure is particularly useful when the person doing the main action is different from the person completing the action in the até clause. By conjugating the infinitive, you make it perfectly clear who is doing what.
| I use the pickaxe until we reveal the fossil. | Uso a picareta até nós revelarmos o fóssil. |
| You must catalog the ruins until the archaeologists arrive. | Vocês devem catalogar as ruínas até os arqueólogos chegarem. |
