Breakdown of É necessário os alunos trazerem a autorização escolar.
ser
to be
o aluno
the student (m)
trazer
to bring
necessário
necessary
escolar
school
a autorização
the authorization
Questions & Answers about É necessário os alunos trazerem a autorização escolar.
Why do we use trazerem here instead of the normal infinitive trazer?
Trazerem is the Personal Infinitive (Infinitivo Pessoal) conjugated for eles. Because the action of bringing has a specific subject (os alunos), we must conjugate the infinitive to match them. If we didn't specify who needed to bring the authorization (e.g., "It is necessary to bring..."), we would just use the basic, uninflected infinitive trazer.
The lesson mentions this is an alternative to using que + Subjunctive. How would that version look for this sentence?
You could also say É necessário que os alunos tragam a autorização escolar. In that structure, the word que triggers the present subjunctive form tragam. Using the personal infinitive (trazerem) without que lets you express the exact same meaning while avoiding the subjunctive entirely, which is a very common and natural shortcut in Portuguese!
Wait, isn't trazerem also the Future Subjunctive form of the verb?
Yes, they look identical here! For regular verbs and most irregular verbs like trazer, the Personal Infinitive and the Future Subjunctive share the exact same forms. However, in this sentence, we know it is the Personal Infinitive because it follows an impersonal expression (É necessário) rather than a Future Subjunctive trigger word like se (if) or quando (when).
Could we change the word order and put os alunos after the verb?
Yes, you can. You will often hear Portuguese speakers say É necessário trazerem os alunos a autorização escolar. Because the personal infinitive ending (-em) already makes it crystal clear that a plural third-party subject is doing the action, Portuguese allows a lot of flexibility with where the subject is placed.
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