Breakdown of Oxalá eu não tivesse sido tão egoísta e te tivesse valorizado.
eu
I
ser
to be
e
and
não
not / no
ter
to have
tão
as / so
te
you (informal object)
oxalá
hopefully
egoísta
selfish
valorizar
to value
Questions & Answers about Oxalá eu não tivesse sido tão egoísta e te tivesse valorizado.
Why do we use the past perfect subjunctive (tivesse sido and tivesse valorizado) after Oxalá instead of the present subjunctive?
While Oxalá often takes the present subjunctive to express a future hope, using it with the past perfect subjunctive (Mais-Que-Perfeito do Conjuntivo) completely changes the meaning to a strong past regret. It translates to 'If only I had...' or 'I wish I had...', talking about something that is now impossible to change.
Could I drop the second tivesse and just say e te valorizado, similar to how we drop 'had' in English?
Why is the pronoun te placed before the verb in te tivesse valorizado?
The adverb Oxalá creates a subjunctive environment for the whole sentence, which acts as a magnet pulling pronouns before the verb. Even though te tivesse comes after the conjunction e, it still belongs to the structure governed by Oxalá, so the pronoun must stay before the verb.
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