Learn Portuguese (Portugal): Diga o que disser, a minha convicção é inabalável. - Whatever he says, my conviction is unshakable.

Diga o que disser, a minha convicção é inabalável.

Whatever he says, my conviction is unshakable.

Breakdown of Diga o que disser, a minha convicção é inabalável.

my (m/f/pl: meu, minha, meus, minhas)

dizer

to say

Questions & Answers about Diga o que disser, a minha convicção é inabalável.

Why are there two different forms of dizer (diga and disser) in the first phrase?

This is a specific structure used to express 'no matter what' or 'whatever someone does'. It combines the present subjunctive (diga), a relative pronoun (o que), and the future subjunctive of the same verb (disser).

Could this phrase mean 'Whatever you say' instead of 'Whatever he says'?

Yes. Because diga and disser are third-person singular conjugations, they can refer to ele (he), ela (she), or the formal you, você. The provided English translation assumes 'he', but 'whatever you say' is a perfectly valid translation depending on the context.

If I wanted to say 'whatever they say', how would this structure change?

You would conjugate both verbs in the third-person plural. The present subjunctive becomes digam and the future subjunctive becomes disserem, making the phrase digam o que disserem.

Could I use the indicative here and say diz o que diz?

No, because this structure expresses a hypothetical or uncertain situation, which requires the subjunctive mood. Using the indicative diz o que diz would mean 'he says what he says', which states a literal fact rather than the concessive idea of 'no matter what he says'.