Breakdown of A fonte disse que o presidente tinha desmentido a manchete.
ter
to have
dizer
to say
que
that (conjunction)
o presidente
the president
a fonte
the source
desmentir
to deny
a manchete
the headline
Questions & Answers about A fonte disse que o presidente tinha desmentido a manchete.
Why do we use tinha desmentido here instead of the simple past desmentiu?
Because the main verb disse is in the past tense, the action being reported needs to take a step back in time. If the original action happened in the simple past, reporting it later changes it to the compound past perfect (Mais-Que-Perfeito Composto). This makes it clear that the president's denial happened before the source spoke about it.
What would the exact direct quote (the original words of the source) look like in Portuguese?
The source would have said: O presidente desmentiu a manchete. (The president denied the headline). When we report this completed past event using A fonte disse que..., the simple past desmentiu shifts one step backward in time to become tinha desmentido.
Is the verb desmentir related to mentir (to lie)?
Yes! The prefix des- often reverses or negates the meaning of a word, similar to 'un-' or 'dis-' in English. While mentir means to lie, desmentir means to deny, contradict, or expose a lie. The past participle used here is perfectly regular: desmentido.
Why is the reporting verb disse in the simple past (Pretérito Perfeito) rather than the imperfect (Pretérito Imperfeito)?
We use the simple past disse because the act of the source giving this specific statement is viewed as a single, completed event. If the source had been repeatedly saying this over a period of time, or if we were setting a background scene ('The source was saying...'), you would use the imperfect form dizia.
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