Breakdown of Quem me dera estar naquele resort relaxante!
estar
to be (temporary / location)
em
in / on / at
aquele
that over there (aquele, aquela, aqueles, aquelas)
o resort
the resort
quem me dera
I wish
relaxante
relaxing
Questions & Answers about Quem me dera estar naquele resort relaxante!
Why does Quem me dera mean "I wish" here?
Quem me dera is a fixed expression used to express a strong desire, like "I wish" or "if only." Literally, it translates to something like "Who had given it to me," using the verb dar (to give) in the past perfect tense (dera). It is best to memorize the whole phrase as a single chunk.
Why is the verb estar in the infinitive here instead of the subjunctive?
We use the infinitive (estar) because the person wishing and the person at the resort are the same (I wish I were). If you were wishing for someone else to be there, you would use que plus the imperfect subjunctive, for example: Quem me dera que ele estivesse naquele resort! (I wish he were in that resort!).
Why do we use naquele instead of nesse?
naquele is the contraction of the preposition em (in/at) and the demonstrative pronoun aquele (that). We use aquele when the place we are talking about is distant from both the speaker and the listener. If the resort were conceptually closer to the listener, you would use nesse.
Is resort a standard word in Portuguese?
Yes! The word resort is an English loanword that has been fully adopted into everyday Portuguese. Because it acts as a normal masculine noun, the adjective relaxante (relaxing) follows it directly, matching the standard Portuguese word order.
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