Breakdown of O traidor sugeriu que o exército incendiasse a cidade.
a cidade
the city
que
that (conjunction)
sugerir
to suggest
o exército
the army
o traidor
the traitor
incendiar
to set on fire
Questions & Answers about O traidor sugeriu que o exército incendiasse a cidade.
Why is incendiasse in the imperfect subjunctive here?
The main verb sugeriu is in the past tense. Verbs of suggestion like sugerir trigger the subjunctive, so when we state the main clause in the past, the dependent clause must backshift from the present subjunctive to the imperfect subjunctive (incendiasse).
What would this sentence look like if the suggestion was being made right now?
If the traitor were suggesting it in the present tense, the main verb would be sugere, which triggers the present subjunctive: O traidor sugere que o exército incendeie a cidade. Because the actual sentence is in the past, incendeie is forced to shift back to incendiasse.
The present subjunctive of incendiar has an extra e (incendeie). Why doesn't incendiasse have one?
Incendiar belongs to a small group of irregular verbs that add an e in their stress-bearing forms, such as the present subjunctive incendeie. However, the imperfect subjunctive is always built directly from the simple past (incendiaram). Since that past tense form is regular and doesn't have the extra e, neither does incendiasse.
Could we use the personal infinitive here instead of the subjunctive?
Yes, you can often bypass the subjunctive by rephrasing with an indirect object and the infinitive. For example: O traidor sugeriu ao exército incendiar a cidade. This translates closer to 'The traitor suggested to the army to set the city on fire' and completely avoids the need for backshifting.
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