Breakdown of Resgatados os feridos, o helicóptero descolou para o hospital.
o hospital
the hospital
para
to / for
descolar
to take off
resgatar
to rescue
o helicóptero
the helicopter
o ferido
the injured person
Questions & Answers about Resgatados os feridos, o helicóptero descolou para o hospital.
Why does resgatados come before os feridos in the first part of the sentence?
This is an Absolute Participle Clause (oração reduzida de particípio). In these constructions, the past participle usually comes before its subject to show that it is a dependent clause indicating time or cause. If you said os feridos resgatados, it would sound like a simple noun phrase ("the rescued injured people") rather than a completed action ("once the injured were rescued").
Why is it resgatados with an -os at the end instead of just resgatado?
How does Resgatados os feridos translate to "After the injured were rescued"? Where is the word for "after"?
The "after" is built into the grammar! Absolute participle clauses inherently express an action that was entirely finished before the main action happened. You could rewrite this the long way as Depois de os feridos serem resgatados (After the injured were rescued), but using the participle clause is a shorter, more elegant way to express the exact same timeline.
Is descolou the normal verb for "took off"?
Yes, specifically for aircraft. Descolar literally means "to un-glue" (des- + colar), but it is the standard aviation term for taking off. If a person takes off their shoes, you would use tirar, and if a car takes off quickly, you would use arrancar.
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