Breakdown of Ela traduziu o pergaminho e disse que o rei tinha partido na véspera.
e
and
ela
she
ter
to have
na
in the / on the / at the (f.sg)
partir
to leave / to depart
dizer
to say
que
that (conjunction)
o rei
the king
traduzir
to translate
o pergaminho
the parchment
a véspera
the day before / the eve
Questions & Answers about Ela traduziu o pergaminho e disse que o rei tinha partido na véspera.
Why does the sentence use na véspera instead of ontem for 'the day before'?
This is because of reported speech! If she were speaking directly, she would have said 'The king left yesterday' (O rei partiu ontem). But since we are reporting what she said in the past (disse que), time words must shift to match that past perspective. ontem (yesterday) shifts to na véspera or no dia anterior (the day before).
Why do we use tinha partido (had left) here?
Because the reporting verb is in the past (disse, meaning 'said'), the action she is talking about must be pushed even further back in time. Her original direct words were likely in the simple past: O rei partiu (The king left). In reported speech, this backshifts to the past perfect tense: tinha partido (had left).
I thought véspera meant 'eve', like New Year's Eve. Can it just mean any 'day before'?
Yes! While you will often see it in holidays like Véspera de Ano Novo (New Year's Eve), in everyday storytelling or reported speech, a véspera simply means the day immediately preceding the time you are talking about.
Why do we need the word na before véspera?
na is the contraction of em (in/on) and the feminine 'the' (a). Just like in English we say 'on the eve', Portuguese uses the preposition em with véspera. Notice that if she had used the direct word ontem (yesterday), it wouldn't need a preposition at all.
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