Breakdown of Ele ainda era solteiro antes de termos contratado a florista.
ser
to be
ele
he
ter
to have
antes de
before
ainda
still / yet / even (with comparatives)
contratar
to hire
solteiro
single
a florista
the florist
Questions & Answers about Ele ainda era solteiro antes de termos contratado a florista.
Why do we use termos contratado here instead of a normal past tense like tínhamos contratado?
Prepositions and prepositional phrases like antes de (before) or depois de (after) must be followed by an infinitive, not a regular conjugated tense. Because the hiring happened in the past, we use the Perfect Personal Infinitive: the auxiliary verb ter in its personal infinitive form (termos) plus the past participle (contratado).
How does the word termos tell us exactly who hired the florist?
The Personal Infinitive allows us to show who is doing the action by adding specific endings to the base infinitive. For the pronoun nós (we), the ending is -mos. So, the base verb ter becomes termos. If the sentence was about 'them' hiring the florist, it would be terem contratado.
Why use era (from ser) for 'was single'? Shouldn't a changeable state like being single use estar?
Why is the first verb era in the Imperfect tense rather than the Preterite (foi)?
The Imperfect tense is used here because 'being single' was an ongoing background state in the past, rather than a single completed action with a clear start and end. The word ainda (still) is a great hint that we are describing an ongoing situation, which triggers the Imperfect.
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