Breakdown of Depois daquela aparição, nós passámos a acreditar no sobrenatural.
nós
we
em
in / on / at
aquele
that over there (+ noun)
depois de
after
acreditar
to believe
passar a
to start to (do) / to turn into (change into)
a aparição
the apparition
sobrenatural
supernatural
Questions & Answers about Depois daquela aparição, nós passámos a acreditar no sobrenatural.
Why use passámos a acreditar instead of começámos a acreditar?
Since this lesson focuses on the evidential conditional, how could we rewrite this sentence to frame the belief as a rumor?
You would change the main verb to the conditional: Depois daquela aparição, nós passaríamos a acreditar no sobrenatural. This translates to "After that apparition, we supposedly started believing in the supernatural," showing that the speaker is recounting an unverified claim rather than stating a hard fact.
Why does the word passámos have an accent mark?
In European Portuguese, the acute accent in passámos indicates the simple past tense and tells you to pronounce the "a" with an open sound. This distinguishes it from the present tense passamos, which has a closed "a" sound and no accent mark.
Why is it no sobrenatural rather than just em sobrenatural?
The verb acreditar requires the preposition em (to believe in). Because the adjective sobrenatural is acting as a specific noun here (meaning "the supernatural"), it requires the masculine definite article o. The preposition em merges with o to create the contraction no.
Learn Depois daquela aparição, nós passámos a acreditar no sobrenatural 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