Breakdown of O vencedor vai ser quem receber mais votos.
ser
to be
quem
who
ir
to go
mais
more
receber
to receive
o vencedor
the winner
o voto
the vote
Questions & Answers about O vencedor vai ser quem receber mais votos.
Why does receber look exactly like the infinitive here?
It is actually the Future Subjunctive (Futuro do Conjuntivo). For regular verbs like receber, the Future Subjunctive forms for eu, ele, ela, and você are identical to the infinitive. We need the Future Subjunctive here because it follows quem and refers to an uncertain future event (we don't know who will receive the most votes yet).
How does quem mean "whoever" instead of "who" in this sentence?
While quem usually means "who" in direct questions, here it is a relative pronoun. When you pair quem with the Future Subjunctive, it translates to "whoever" or "the person who" because it refers to a hypothetical or currently unknown person.
If "whoever" might end up being multiple people, why is the verb receber in the singular?
Could I say O vencedor será... instead of using vai ser?
Yes, absolutely! Será is the simple future tense of ser (to be). However, in everyday spoken Portuguese, it is much more common to use the informal future made of ir + infinitive, which is why vai ser (is going to be) is used here.
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