Usa o termómetro antes de eles fermentarem o leite.
Use the thermometer before they ferment the milk.
Breakdown of Usa o termómetro antes de eles fermentarem o leite.
eles
they (m)
o leite
the milk
usar
to use / to wear
antes de
before
o termómetro
the thermometer
fermentar
to ferment
Questions & Answers about Usa o termómetro antes de eles fermentarem o leite.
Why do we use the personal infinitive fermentarem here instead of the regular infinitive fermentar?
The two clauses in this sentence have different subjects. The first part gives a command to an implied 'you' (tu), while the second part is about 'them' (eles). When using antes de and the subjects are different, we must use the personal infinitive to clarify who is performing the second action. That is why fermentar takes the -em ending for eles.
Since this sentence is about an anticipated action, couldn't I use the subjunctive and say antes que eles fermentem?
Yes, you absolutely can! Antes que followed by the present subjunctive (fermentem) means the exact same thing as antes de followed by the personal infinitive (fermentarem). However, native Portuguese speakers often prefer the antes de + personal infinitive construction because it is generally easier to form on the fly in everyday speech.
Why is the pronoun eles placed between the preposition and the verb? Could I drop it?
When a personal infinitive has an explicit subject pronoun like eles, it most commonly sits directly before the verb, right after the preposition de. You could drop eles entirely if the context already makes it completely clear who is doing the fermenting, but including it is very common to avoid ambiguity.
The English translation is a command ('Use'). Why is the Portuguese verb usa rather than use?
Usa is the affirmative imperative (command) for the informal tu. In Portuguese, informal positive commands are identical to the third-person singular present tense (ele/ela usa). If you wanted to give this command formally to someone you address as você, you would switch to the subjunctive form and say use o termómetro.
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