Breakdown of Ao estudarmos os artefactos, vemos que a arqueologia é interessante.
ser
to be
estudar
to study
ver
to see
interessante
interesting
que
that (conjunction)
ao
upon / when (doing something)
o artefacto
the artifact
a arqueologia
the archaeology
Questions & Answers about Ao estudarmos os artefactos, vemos que a arqueologia é interessante.
What does the phrase ao estudarmos literally mean?
The word ao (a contraction of a + o) followed by an infinitive usually translates to "upon [doing something]" or "at the time of [doing something]". So, ao estudarmos translates nicely to "when we study" or "upon our studying".
Why is the infinitive conjugated as estudarmos instead of just left as estudar?
This is the personal infinitive in action! Because the people doing the studying are "we" (nós), we take the base verb estudar and add the personal ending for "we" (-rmos). This makes it crystal clear who is doing the action in this dependent clause.
Could I just use quando instead of the ao + personal infinitive structure?
Yes, absolutely! You could say Quando estudamos os artefactos... using the regular present tense. Using ao + personal infinitive is just a very common, slightly more sophisticated way to express that same "when" idea in Portuguese.
Why is artefactos spelled with a "c" here?
In European Portuguese, the "c" in artefactos is kept and is actually pronounced. You might have previously seen it spelled as artefatos without the "c"—that is the Brazilian Portuguese spelling, where the letter is silent and was eventually dropped.
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