Breakdown of O governo financiar-nos-ia a educação.
a
to / at (direction)
o
him/it (m)
nos
us
o governo
the government
financiar
to fund
a educação
the education
Questions & Answers about O governo financiar-nos-ia a educação.
How exactly is the word financiar-nos-ia put together?
This is an example of mesoclisis, where the pronoun is placed inside the verb. To form it, you take the full infinitive of the verb (financiar), add the pronoun (nos), and then attach the conditional ending for the ele/ela/você form (-ia). So, financiar + nos + ia becomes financiar-nos-ia.
Why is nos in the middle of the verb instead of at the end?
In European Portuguese, you are never allowed to attach a pronoun to the end of a verb in the future or conditional tenses (meaning financiaria-nos is grammatically incorrect). Because there is no "magnet" word earlier in the sentence to pull the pronoun to the front, the pronoun is forced to hide in the middle of the verb.
Why does the English translation say "fund education for us"? Doesn't nos just mean "us"?
Here, nos acts as an indirect object, which often translates to "to us" or "for us". The government isn't literally funding us (as if we were a business); they are funding the education (a educação, the direct object) for our benefit.
If I want to say the government wouldn't fund our education, how does the structure change?
Adding a negative word changes everything! Words like não act as "magnets" that pull the pronoun before the verb. The mesoclisis completely disappears, and the sentence becomes O governo não nos financiaria a educação.
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