Breakdown of Escavamos com a pá até encontrarmos um fragmento milenar.
um
a / an / some (all forms)
com
with
encontrar
to find
até
until
escavar
to excavate
a pá
the shovel
o fragmento
the fragment
milenar
ancient
Questions & Answers about Escavamos com a pá até encontrarmos um fragmento milenar.
Why use the personal infinitive encontrarmos here instead of the subjunctive? Doesn't "until we find" imply an uncertain future event?
You actually can use the subjunctive if you change the trigger phrase to até que, making it até que encontremos. However, using the preposition até directly followed by the personal infinitive (encontrarmos) is the preferred and more natural way to express a temporal limit in Portuguese. It is much more common in everyday speech than the subjunctive alternative.
Since encontrarmos is also the exact form for the future subjunctive, how can we be sure it is the personal infinitive in this sentence?
For regular verbs, the personal infinitive and future subjunctive forms are identical. The grammatical clue here is the word até. Because até acts as a preposition in this structure, it must be followed by an infinitive. The future subjunctive is instead triggered by conjunctions like quando or se.
How do we know Escavamos is in the present tense rather than the past tense?
In European Portuguese, the past tense for the nós form of regular -ar verbs requires an acute accent on the A to indicate an open vowel sound: escavámos. Because there is no written accent in this sentence, escavamos is pronounced with a closed A sound and can only be the present tense.
The translation says "ancient", but doesn't milenar literally mean a thousand years old?
Yes, milenar literally relates to a millennium. While antigo is the standard and broader word for "old" or "ancient", milenar is frequently used in archaeology and history to emphasize that an object dates back thousands of years. It adds a descriptive richness and scale that a basic word like antigo lacks.
Learn Escavamos com a pá até encontrarmos um fragmento milenar 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