Breakdown of Eles faliram e a falência foi um fracasso péssimo.
ser
to be
e
and
eles
they (m)
um
a / an / some (all forms)
péssimo
awful
falir
to go bankrupt
o fracasso
the failure (lack of success)
a falência
the bankruptcy
Questions & Answers about Eles faliram e a falência foi um fracasso péssimo.
The words "faliram" and "falência" look very similar. Are they related?
Yes, they share the same root. Falir is the verb meaning "to go bankrupt" or "to fail" (financially). Here it is conjugated in the simple past as eles faliram. A falência is the noun form, meaning "the bankruptcy".
What is the difference between "falência" and "fracasso" if both can mean "failure"?
Falência specifically refers to financial bankruptcy or a literal breakdown/collapse (like organ failure). Fracasso is a more general, everyday word for a "failure" or a "flop"—such as a project that went wrong, a movie that nobody watched, or a bad life decision.
Why use "péssimo" instead of just saying "muito mau"?
Péssimo is the absolute superlative form of mau (bad), meaning "awful" or "terrible". While you could say muito mau, using strong single-word adjectives like péssimo, ótimo (great), or enorme (huge) is very common in Portuguese and makes you sound much more fluent at the B1 level.
Could I change the word order and say "um péssimo fracasso"?
Yes, you absolutely can! Placing a descriptive or evaluative adjective before the noun is a common way to add emotion or emphasis in Portuguese. Um fracasso péssimo states the terrible failure as a matter of fact, while um péssimo fracasso highlights your personal, emotional judgment of just how awful it was.
Since this lesson covers "por causa de", how could I use it to combine these two thoughts into one cause-and-effect sentence?
You could say: Eles faliram por causa de um fracasso péssimo (They went bankrupt because of an awful failure). Because a bankruptcy is a negative event, you must use por causa de (because of). You wouldn't use the lesson's other phrase, graças a (thanks to), because that is normally reserved for positive outcomes.
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