Por outras palavras, o carro foi de encontro à árvore.
In other words, the car crashed into the tree.
Breakdown of Por outras palavras, o carro foi de encontro à árvore.
o carro
the car
ir
to go
a árvore
the tree
por
through / by / for / because of
outro
other
a palavra
the word
de encontro a
against (colliding with)
Questions & Answers about Por outras palavras, o carro foi de encontro à árvore.
Why do we use de encontro à here instead of ao encontro da?
This is the core difference between these two similar-looking phrases! De encontro a implies a collision, opposition, or crashing against something. Ao encontro de implies harmony, agreement, or going to meet someone or something. If you said ao encontro da árvore, it would sound like the car had a pleasant, intentional rendezvous with the tree.
Where does the grave accent on à come from in de encontro à árvore?
The expression de encontro a ends with the preposition a. Because árvore is a feminine noun, it requires the feminine definite article a ("the"). When the preposition a and the article a combine, they contract into à (a + a = à).
To say "in other words", could I also say em outras palavras?
In European Portuguese, the natural and grammatically standard expression is por outras palavras, using the preposition por. You might encounter em outras palavras in Brazilian Portuguese, but in Portugal, you should stick to using por.
The English translation says "crashed", but the Portuguese sentence uses foi (went). Why?
The phrase ir de encontro a literally translates to "to go against." When a vehicle "goes against" a tree, it naturally describes a collision. European Portuguese frequently uses this expression to describe physical impacts instead of relying entirely on a dedicated verb like "crash" (though you could also simply say o carro bateu na árvore).
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