Breakdown of O pai não dá a mesada sem eles cumprirem todas as obrigações.
não
not / no
eles
they (m)
o pai
the father / the parents
dar
to give
Questions & Answers about O pai não dá a mesada sem eles cumprirem todas as obrigações.
Why is the verb cumprirem in the personal infinitive here rather than the regular (impersonal) infinitive?
Because the subject changes. The father (o pai) is doing the giving, but they (eles) are doing the fulfilling. When we use the preposition sem and the subject of the second verb is different from the main verb, we use the personal infinitive to make it completely clear who is doing the action.
Could we use the subjunctive instead of the personal infinitive for this exclusion clause?
Yes, you could say sem que eles cumpram. Both structures are used for exclusion clauses. However, using sem followed by the personal infinitive (cumprirem) is very common and often preferred by native speakers because it feels more direct and avoids the need for the conjunction que.
Why is there a definite article in todas as obrigações instead of just saying todas obrigações?
In Portuguese, when todo or toda means 'all of the' and is followed by a noun, you must include the definite article. If you drop the article, the meaning shifts from 'all' to 'every'. For example, toda obrigação would mean 'every obligation', rather than 'all the obligations'.
Can we drop the pronoun eles from this sentence?