Breakdown of O marinheiro dormia no convés, apesar de a tempestade ser forte.
ser
to be
no
in the / on the / at the (m, f, pl forms: na, nos, nas)
dormir
to sleep
forte
strong
apesar de
despite
a tempestade
the storm
o marinheiro
the sailor
o convés
the deck
Questions & Answers about O marinheiro dormia no convés, apesar de a tempestade ser forte.
Why is it apesar de a instead of the usual contraction apesar da?
This is a crucial rule for the personal infinitive! When a preposition like de comes right before the subject of a new clause (here, a tempestade), you cannot contract them. The subject must stand alone. If there were no verb later in the phrase, you would contract it to apesar da tempestade (despite the storm).
How do we know ser is the personal infinitive here, since it looks exactly like the regular infinitive?
You know it is the personal infinitive because it has its own explicit subject (a tempestade) that is different from the main subject of the sentence (o marinheiro). For the third-person singular, the personal infinitive shares the exact same form as the regular (impersonal) infinitive, but its grammatical function is to handle this subject change after a preposition.
Why does the sentence use dormia instead of the simple past tense dormiu?
dormia is the imperfect tense, used here to describe an ongoing, continuous action in the past (was sleeping). It sets the background scene. If you used the preterite tense dormiu, it would sound like a single completed action, such as the sailor falling asleep at a specific moment in time.
Why do we say no convés for on the deck?
no is the contraction of the preposition em (in/on/at) and the masculine definite article o (the). While English uses on for surfaces like a ship's deck, Portuguese generally uses em for these locations, resulting in no convés.
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