Breakdown of Os arqueólogos trabalham na trincheira até desenterrarem o fóssil.
em
in / on / at
trabalhar
to work
até
until
o arqueólogo
the archaeologist
a trincheira
the trench
desenterrar
to unearth
o fóssil
the fossil
Questions & Answers about Os arqueólogos trabalham na trincheira até desenterrarem o fóssil.
Why do we use desenterrarem (the personal infinitive) here instead of just the basic infinitive desenterrar?
We use the personal infinitive because the action of unearthing has a specific subject: the archaeologists ("they"). Even though the subject is the same in both halves of the sentence, adding the third-person plural ending -em to the base verb desenterrar makes it crystal clear who is doing the action after the preposition até.
I learned earlier that "until" triggers the subjunctive (até que). Can I use that here instead?
Yes, you could say até que desenterrem using the present subjunctive. However, using the preposition até followed directly by the personal infinitive (até desenterrarem) means exactly the same thing and is highly preferred by native speakers. It is a more concise, natural-sounding shortcut!
The verb desenterrarem looks like it contains the word for "earth". Is that right?
What is the plural of fóssil? Does it become fóssis?
Actually, the plural is fósseis. For words ending in -il, the plural depends on which syllable is stressed. Because fóssil has the stress on the second-to-last syllable (indicated by the accent), the -il changes to -eis. If the stress were on the final -il (like in the word barril), the -l would change to -s to make barris.
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