Breakdown of Nós íamos reagir à publicação.
nós
we
à
at the (fem. sg.) / to the (fem. sg.)
ir
to go
a publicação
the post
reagir
to react
Questions & Answers about Nós íamos reagir à publicação.
Why use íamos instead of the completed past tense fomos?
íamos is the Pretérito Imperfeito (past continuous) of ir (to go). In Portuguese, using the Imperfeito of ir + an infinitive like reagir is how you express a past intention: "we were going to react." It strongly implies you intended to do it, but ultimately didn't. If you said fomos reagir, it would mean "we went to react" (an action you actually completed).
Why does à have a grave accent here?
That accent marks a contraction called crase. The verb reagir (to react) requires the preposition a (to react to). Because publicação is a feminine noun, it uses the feminine definite article a (the). When the preposition a and the article a meet, they merge into à (to the).
Could we leave out the word Nós in this sentence?
Yes, you can. The verb ending in íamos only ever corresponds to Nós (we) in the Imperfeito tense. Because there is no ambiguity, native speakers will often drop the pronoun and just say Íamos reagir à publicação.
Is publicação the standard word for a social media "post"?
Yes! While it literally means "publication" (and is used for books or articles), it is the most common Portuguese word for social media posts. You will also hear younger people use the English word post, but publicação is the standard term you will see on the interfaces of apps like Facebook or Instagram in Portugal.
How do you pronounce the 'g' in reagir?
In Portuguese, when the letter g is followed by e or i, it makes a soft "zh" sound. It sounds just like the "s" in the English word "measure" or the "j" in the French word "bonjour".
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