Breakdown of Nós dissemos que o ministro tinha esclarecido a declaração.
nós
we
ter
to have
dizer
to say
que
that (conjunction)
o ministro
the minister
a declaração
the statement
esclarecer
to clarify
Questions & Answers about Nós dissemos que o ministro tinha esclarecido a declaração.
Why do we use tinha esclarecido here instead of just esclareceu?
This sentence is an example of reported speech. The original direct quote was likely in the simple past, such as: O ministro esclareceu a declaração. Because the reporting verb is also in the past (dissemos), the original past tense action gets pushed even further back in time, backshifting into the past perfect (tinha esclarecido).
How exactly is the tense for tinha esclarecido formed?
It is the compound past perfect, known in Portuguese as the pretérito mais-que-perfeito composto. You form it by taking the imperfect tense of the helping verb ter (in this case, tinha for the third-person singular) and adding the past participle of your main verb (here, esclarecido).
Is it easy to confuse dissemos with the present tense?
Yes, learners often mix up dissemos (we said) and dizemos (we say). Remember that the past tense uses a double s instead of a z. They also sound slightly different: the first i in dissemos is a short, closed sound, while the i in dizemos sounds more like the ee in the English word see.
Where does the verb esclarecer come from?
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