Breakdown of É normal os transportes aumentarem as despesas.
ser
to be
aumentar
to increase
normal
normal
o transporte
the transport
a despesa
the expense
Questions & Answers about É normal os transportes aumentarem as despesas.
Why do we use aumentarem instead of the regular infinitive aumentar?
Because we are stating exactly who is doing the increasing. When an infinitive verb has a specific subject (in this case, os transportes), Portuguese uses the Personal Infinitive, which adds endings to match the subject. Since os transportes is a third-person plural subject (they), we add the plural ending -em to the infinitive.
Could I use the subjunctive to say this instead?
Absolutely. Impersonal expressions like É normal are classic triggers for the Present Subjunctive, but they require the word que (that) to connect the clauses. The alternative sentence would be: É normal que os transportes aumentem as despesas. Using the Personal Infinitive lets you drop the que and makes the sentence a bit more direct.
Aumentarem is also the Future Subjunctive form. How do I know it is the Personal Infinitive here?
For regular verbs like aumentar, the Personal Infinitive and the Future Subjunctive happen to look exactly identical. You can tell them apart by the context. The Future Subjunctive is used after specific trigger words like se (if) or quando (when). Because there are no trigger words here, and it follows the impersonal phrase É normal, it has to be the Personal Infinitive.
Why does the English translation say "for the transports to" when there is no Portuguese word for "for" or "to" here?
English relies on the grammar structure "for [subject] to [verb]" after phrases like "It is normal". Portuguese links them directly without extra prepositions. You simply state the impersonal phrase (É normal), the subject (os transportes), and then the Personal Infinitive verb (aumentarem). Adding a preposition like para before the subject here would sound unnatural.
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