Breakdown of Se vires o folião, é a ele que dás o confete.
ser
to be
ele
he
a
to / at (direction)
ver
to see
dar
to give
se
if
que
who / which / that (relative)
o folião
the reveler
o confete
the confetti
Questions & Answers about Se vires o folião, é a ele que dás o confete.
Why do we use é a ele que instead of just é ele que?
This is a prepositional cleft sentence. The verb dar requires the preposition a when indicating who receives something (dar a alguém). When we want to emphasize the recipient, we pull that preposition to the front, right before the pronoun: é a ele que (literally, "it is to him that").
Could I use the indirect object pronoun lhe here, like é-lhe que dás?
No, you cannot attach an indirect object pronoun like lhe to the verb ser in a cleft structure. When you emphasize an indirect object this way, you must break it out into the preposition plus a standalone (disjunctive) pronoun, which is why we use a ele.
Why is the verb ver conjugated as vires?
Vires is the future subjunctive form for tu. We use the future subjunctive after the conjunction se (if) when talking about a hypothetical or uncertain future event. Since the sentence sets up a condition that might happen in the future ("If you happen to see..."), it requires this mood.
Since ele comes right before que, why is the second verb dás instead of dá?
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