Breakdown of O diretor não quer assumir a responsabilidade.
não
not / no
querer
to want
o diretor
the director
assumir
to assume
a responsabilidade
the responsibility
Questions & Answers about O diretor não quer assumir a responsabilidade.
How can I rewrite this sentence to emphasize that it's the director who refuses, using the structure from this lesson?
Is assumir a false friend? Can I use it to say "I assume you are right"?
It is a partial false friend. In this specific sentence, assumir works exactly like the English "assume" in the sense of taking on a role or burden (assumir a responsabilidade). However, you cannot use it to mean "suppose" or "guess". For "I assume you are right", you would need verbs like supor or presumir.
Why do we need the article a before responsabilidade when English usually just says "take responsibility"?
Portuguese frequently requires definite articles like a before abstract nouns when talking about them as a general concept or a specific whole. While English often drops the article in the set phrase "take responsibility", Portuguese keeps it to form assumir a responsabilidade.
I've sometimes seen the word for director spelled with a "c". Is diretor the standard Portuguese spelling?
Yes, diretor is correct. You might still find older signs, books, or articles in Portugal using the old spelling, which included a silent "c" before the "t". The modern spelling reform removed these silent consonants, so the word is now officially spelled as diretor.
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