Breakdown of Há bastantes meses que o nosso bisavô queria emigrar.
nosso
our (m/f/pl: nosso, nossa, nossos, nossas)
o mês
the month
querer
to want
o
him/it (m)
que
that (conjunction)
há
ago / for (a period up to now)
bastante
quite, plenty (of)
o bisavô
the great-grandfather
emigrar
to emigrate
Questions & Answers about Há bastantes meses que o nosso bisavô queria emigrar.
Why use the imperfect queria here instead of the present tense quer?
The structure há + [time] + que uses the present tense when an action started in the past and is still happening now (has been wanting). By using the imperfect queria, we shift the timeline into the past: he had been wanting to emigrate up to a specific point in the past, putting the ongoing action entirely in the past.
Why does bastantes have an 's' at the end? I thought bastante didn't change form.
Could I write this sentence without using que?
Yes, but you would need to change the word order. You could say O nosso bisavô queria emigrar há bastantes meses. Starting the sentence with Há... que is a common way to put the focus directly on the duration of time, emphasizing exactly how long he had been waiting.
What is the trick to remembering if bisavô is the great-grandfather or great-grandmother?
Look at the accent mark on the final 'o'. Just like avô (grandfather), bisavô has a circumflex (the 'hat' shape, ô), which makes a closed 'oh' sound for the masculine. The feminine bisavó (great-grandmother) uses an acute accent (ó), which makes an open 'aw' sound.
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