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O pai queria que o testamento respeitasse o seu desejo.

O pai queria que o testamento respeitasse o seu desejo.
The father wanted the will to respect his wish.
From Lesson 221:Past sequence of tenses (queria que...)·Portuguese (Portugal)

Questions & Answers about O pai queria que o testamento respeitasse o seu desejo.

Why do we use the imperfect subjunctive respeitasse instead of the present subjunctive respeite?
This is the sequence of tenses in action! The main verb expressing desire, queria (wanted), is in the past tense. When the main verb is in the past, the subjunctive verb in the next clause must also shift to the past (the imperfect subjunctive) to match the timeline. If the sentence were 'The father wants', we would use the present: O pai quer que o testamento respeite.
English uses an infinitive here: 'wanted the will to respect'. Why doesn't Portuguese use the infinitive respeitar?
In English, we often use the pattern 'want + [person/thing] + to [verb]'. Portuguese doesn't work this way. Whenever you want someone or something else to do an action, you must use querer que (to want that) followed by a conjugated subjunctive verb. Literally, this sentence translates to 'The father wanted that the will respected his wish.'
How is the form respeitasse created?
To form the imperfect subjunctive, you always start from the third-person plural of the simple past (Pretérito Perfeito). For respeitar, that is respeitaram. You drop the -ram ending and add the imperfect subjunctive endings. Since the subject is o testamento (it), we add -sse, giving us respeitasse.
Why use the imperfect tense queria rather than the simple past quis?
queria describes an ongoing, continuous state of wanting in the past—it was a long-held desire. If you used quis, it would sound more like a sudden, isolated decision or a one-time urge that just happened and finished.
seu desejo means 'his wish' here, but couldn't seu also mean 'your' or 'its'?
Yes, seu can mean his, hers, its, or yours (formal). We rely on context to know it means 'his' (the father's) rather than the will's own wish. If there were any confusion in real life, a Portuguese speaker might say o desejo dele instead to make it entirely clear that it refers to the father.

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