Breakdown of Eu aconselhei que ele substituísse o açúcar por fruta.
eu
I
ele
he
o açúcar
the sugar
a fruta
the fruit
por
through / by / for / because of
que
that (conjunction)
aconselhar
to advise
substituir
to replace
Questions & Answers about Eu aconselhei que ele substituísse o açúcar por fruta.
Why is substituísse used here instead of a normal past tense like substituiu?
This sentence is reporting a command or piece of advice given in the past. In direct speech, the advice would have been an imperative command like "Replace the sugar!" When you report an imperative statement using a past-tense reporting verb like aconselhei, Portuguese requires you to "backshift" the command into the imperfect subjunctive tense (substituísse).
Why does substituísse have an accent on the second "i"?
The vowels u and i sit next to each other here, but they must be pronounced in separate syllables. The accent mark ensures you put the stress on the i rather than blending it into a single sound with the u, making the pronunciation "sub-sti-tu-ÍS-se".
The English translation says "replace with", so why does the Portuguese sentence use por instead of com?
In Portuguese, the verb substituir (to replace or substitute) pairs with the preposition por to show what the replacement is. Think of it as substituting the sugar "by" fruit. Trying to use com (with) is a very common trap for English speakers!
Why is it just por fruta and not pela fruta?
We drop the definite article here because fruta is being talked about as a general, uncountable category. If the advice was to replace the sugar with a specific piece of fruit that was already mentioned, you would combine por and a to make pela fruta.
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