Breakdown of O canalizador não chegou hoje, portanto o tubo está por arranjar.
não
not / no
estar
to be (temporary / location)
hoje
today
por
through / by / for / because of
chegar
to arrive
o
him/it (m)
portanto
therefore
arranjar
to fix; to get hold of
o canalizador
the plumber
o tubo
the pipe (tube)
Questions & Answers about O canalizador não chegou hoje, portanto o tubo está por arranjar.
Why does está por arranjar translate to a passive phrase like 'is yet to be repaired'?
The structure estar por + infinitive describes a pending or incomplete action. Even though arranjar is in the active voice, this construction focuses on the state of the subject (o tubo) waiting for that action to happen. Therefore, it translates naturally to the passive voice in English: 'is yet to be repaired' or 'remains to be fixed'.
I thought arranjar meant 'to arrange' or 'to get'. Does it mean 'to repair' here?
Yes. Arranjar is an incredibly versatile verb in European Portuguese. While it can mean 'to arrange' or 'to obtain' (like arranjar um emprego for 'to get a job'), it is also the standard everyday word for fixing or repairing something broken.
Why use the simple past chegou if the sentence mentions hoje? Doesn't 'today' require a perfect tense?
Not in Portuguese. While English uses the present perfect for recent actions in unfinished time periods ('has not arrived today'), European Portuguese uses the simple past (pretérito perfeito) for a completed, single-event action, no matter how recent. The Portuguese present perfect is reserved only for actions that repeatedly occur over a period of time up to the present.
Could I say o tubo tem de ser arranjado instead?
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