Breakdown of Na verdade, descartamos o lote mal vemos uma falha.
um
a / an / some (all forms)
ver
to see
o
him/it (m)
a falha
the failure
mal
as soon as
na verdade
actually, in fact
descartar
to discard
o lote
the batch
Questions & Answers about Na verdade, descartamos o lote mal vemos uma falha.
Why use na verdade here instead of atualmente?
Na verdade is a connector of reality meaning "in fact" or "actually". It confirms or emphasizes the truth of the statement. English speakers often mistakenly use atualmente to mean "actually", but that is a false friend which means "currently".
I thought mal meant "bad" or "poorly". Why is it translated as "as soon as"?
While mal is an adverb meaning "badly", it also acts as a temporal conjunction meaning "as soon as" or "the minute that". In this context, it works just like assim que or logo que, but is often preferred in everyday spoken Portuguese for being short and punchy.
Why is the verb vemos in the indicative here? Doesn't "as soon as" often trigger the subjunctive?
We use the present indicative (vemos) because the sentence describes a habitual action or a general rule: every time a flaw is seen, the batch is discarded. If this were a condition about a specific future event (for example, "we will discard the next batch as soon as we see a flaw"), you would use the future subjunctive instead, making it mal virmos.
Could I use defeito instead of falha in this sentence?
Yes, absolutely. Both uma falha (a flaw or failure) and um defeito (a defect) are perfectly natural when talking about a physical problem or imperfection in a manufacturing batch (um lote).
Learn Na verdade, descartamos o lote mal vemos uma falha and more in Portuguese
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free