Breakdown of Afinal, não acho que o ecossistema esteja fora de perigo.
não
not / no
estar
to be (temporary / location)
fora de
outside
achar
to reckon / to find
que
that (conjunction)
afinal
after all
o perigo
the danger
o ecossistema
the ecosystem
Questions & Answers about Afinal, não acho que o ecossistema esteja fora de perigo.
The lesson says afinal is for concluding. Does it always mean 'ultimately'?
In this context, acting as a concluding discourse marker, afinal means 'ultimately' or 'in the end' to wrap up an argument. However, you will also frequently hear it used to mean 'after all' or 'actually' when someone changes their mind or corrects a previous assumption (e.g., Afinal, não vou - 'Actually, I am not going').
Why does this sentence use the subjunctive esteja instead of the indicative está?
The phrase não acho que (I do not think that) expresses doubt or a negative opinion, which triggers the subjunctive in Portuguese. If the sentence were positive (acho que...), it would state a belief as a certainty to the speaker, so you would use the indicative está.
Why do we use a form of estar (esteja) rather than ser (seja) with fora de perigo?
We use estar because being 'out of danger' is considered a current condition or a temporary state, not a permanent, inherent characteristic of the ecosystem.
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