A empresa afirma que se trata de uma violação.
The company states that it is a matter of a violation.
Breakdown of A empresa afirma que se trata de uma violação.
um
a / an / some (all forms)
que
that (conjunction)
a empresa
the company
afirmar
to claim
tratar-se de
to be a matter of / to concern
a violação
the violation
Questions & Answers about A empresa afirma que se trata de uma violação.
Why does this sentence use se trata de instead of just é?
While é (it is) works grammatically here, tratar-se de carries a more formal and precise meaning. It translates closest to "it is a matter of," "it concerns," or "the issue at hand is." In business, legal, or journalistic contexts—like a company making an official statement—tratar-se de is the standard way to define the exact nature of a situation.
Could A empresa be the subject of se trata?
No. Tratar-se de is a strictly impersonal construction, meaning it never takes a standard subject like a person or a company. It only ever exists in the third-person singular to mean "it is a matter of." In this sentence, A empresa is the subject of afirma (the company states), and the impersonal "it" is introduced in the following clause.
Why is the pronoun placed before the verb (que se trata) rather than after (que trata-se)?
In European Portuguese, pronouns normally attach to the end of the verb in affirmative sentences. However, the word que (that) is a "magnet" word. Subordinating conjunctions like que force the pronoun to move to the position right before the verb.
Is the preposition de mandatory here?
Yes, when using this specific impersonal construction, the verb must always be connected to the subject matter by the preposition de. If the noun following it required a definite article, you would need to contract them (for example, trata-se do problema if it were "it is a matter of the problem").
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