Breakdown of A máquina de lavar roupa em que confio estragou-se rapidamente.
em
in / on / at
se
himself / herself / themselves
que
who / which / that (relative)
confiar
to trust
Questions & Answers about A máquina de lavar roupa em que confio estragou-se rapidamente.
Why do we need se in estragou-se? Can't I just say estragou?
In Portuguese, the verb estragar (to damage/break) is transitive, meaning an agent has to break something. If you just said A máquina estragou, a Portuguese speaker would wait to hear what the machine broke. Adding se creates the anti-causative (or middle) voice. It shows that the machine underwent a change of state (it broke down) without focusing on who or what caused it, and it definitely didn't break itself!
Could I say foi estragada instead of estragou-se?
You could, but it changes the meaning slightly. Foi estragada is the true passive voice and strongly implies that a specific external agent broke the machine (for example, a person misused it). Estragou-se is the most natural way to say an appliance broke down through general wear and tear or a mechanical failure.
Why is there an em right before que in em que confio?
In English, we often leave the preposition at the end of the sentence: The machine that I rely on. In Portuguese, you cannot leave prepositions dangling at the end of a clause. Because the verb confiar (to trust/rely) requires the preposition em (confiar em), that preposition must be moved to immediately before the relative pronoun que.
Why is the pronoun attached to the end of the verb (estragou-se) rather than before it?