Question 1

Why is cá used here right after Eu? Does it mean 'here'?

Accepted Answer

In this sentence, cá is not a spatial adverb indicating physical location. Instead, it is used for pragmatic focus to emphasize the speaker's personal opinion, often contrasting it with what others might think. It translates best to phrases like 'As for me' or 'Personally'.

Question 2

Could I use aqui instead of cá to say 'as for me'?

Accepted Answer

No, you cannot. When adding emotional or pragmatic emphasis to express a personal stance, you must use cá (or lá for distancing). The word aqui is strictly used for physical, geographic location and cannot be used for this kind of conversational emphasis.

Question 3

Why don't we need que (that) or the verb ser (to be) after acho?

Accepted Answer

While you could say acho que esta polémica é incrivelmente escandalosa (I think that this controversy is...), this sentence uses achar in the sense of 'to consider'. Just like in English ('I consider this controversy scandalous'), you can follow the verb directly with the object (esta polémica) and its adjective (escandalosa) without needing que or a 'to be' verb.

Question 4

Why does incrivelmente lose the accent mark that the base word incrível normally has?

Accepted Answer

When you add the suffix -mente to an adjective to form an adverb in Portuguese, the original word loses any written stress mark it had. Therefore, the accented incrível becomes the unaccented incrivelmente, and the spoken stress naturally shifts to the -men- syllable.

Eu cá acho esta polémica incrivelmente escandalosa.

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