Breakdown of Perdeu-se-lhe a navalha enquanto rastejávamos.
a
to / at (direction)
perder
to lose
lhe
to him / to her / to you (formal)
se
himself / herself / themselves
Questions & Answers about Perdeu-se-lhe a navalha enquanto rastejávamos.
Why is it Perdeu-se-lhe instead of just saying Ele perdeu?
Using perdeu-se-lhe (literally "it lost itself to him") shows that the loss was entirely accidental and out of his control. Saying Ele perdeu a navalha is also correct, but the se-lhe construction is a very natural way in Portuguese to emphasize the unintended, accidental nature of an event like losing, dropping, or forgetting something.
How do the pronouns in Perdeu-se-lhe function together?
The pronoun se acts here to make the sentence passive, making a navalha (the pocket knife) the grammatical subject: "the knife got lost." The indirect object pronoun lhe (to him) then indicates who was affected by this mishap. This combination is a classic European Portuguese structure for expressing accidents.
Why is rastejávamos in the Imperfect tense while perdeu is in the Preterite?
Could lhe refer to "her" or "you" (formal) instead of "him"?
Yes, grammatically lhe serves as the indirect object pronoun for him, her, or you (formal singular). Without additional context, this sentence could just as easily mean "She accidentally lost the pocket knife" or "You accidentally lost the pocket knife." The provided translation assumes "he" based on implied context.