Word
O especialista recomendou que evitasses a cirurgia.
Meaning
The specialist recommended that you avoid the surgery.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of O especialista recomendou que evitasses a cirurgia.
que
that (conjunction)
recomendar
to recommend
o especialista
the specialist
evitar
to avoid
Questions & Answers about O especialista recomendou que evitasses a cirurgia.
Why is evitasses in the imperfect subjunctive instead of the present subjunctive?
The tense of the subjunctive verb depends on the tense of the main verb. Because the main verb recomendou is in the past tense, the reported action must match it by using the past (imperfect) subjunctive evitasses. If the specialist were making the recommendation right now (recomenda), you would use the present subjunctive evites.
How does this sentence show reported speech?
Verbs of suggestion like recomendar and sugerir are used to report what someone told another person to do. The specialist's original direct speech was likely a command: "Avoid the surgery!" (Evita a cirurgia!). To report this past command, Portuguese uses the reporting verb (recomendou) + que + the imperfect subjunctive (evitasses).
How do we know who is being told to avoid the surgery?
The recommendation is being given to an informal "you". We know this because evitasses is the tu form of the imperfect subjunctive. If the specialist were advising a formal "you" (você) or a third person (he/she), the verb would be evitasse without the final "s".
Could we use an infinitive here instead of the subjunctive?