Breakdown of É normal ambicionar mais sem chegar ao esgotamento.
ser
to be
a
to / at (direction)
mais
more
chegar
to arrive
sem
without
normal
normal
ambicionar
to aspire to
o esgotamento
the burnout
Questions & Answers about É normal ambicionar mais sem chegar ao esgotamento.
Why do we use the infinitive chegar here instead of a gerund like in the English "without reaching"?
In Portuguese, prepositions like sem (without) are always followed by the infinitive, never the gerund. So, "without reaching" translates directly to sem chegar.
Why does chegar need ao before esgotamento? In English, we just say "reaching burnout".
The verb chegar (to arrive/reach) always requires the preposition a to indicate the destination or state reached. Since esgotamento is a masculine noun, a combines with the definite article o to form ao.
Could we use the personal infinitive for ambicionar and chegar in this sentence?
You could, but only if you wanted to specify who is aspiring and reaching burnout. As written, the impersonal infinitive is used because this is a general, universal statement. If you wanted to say "It is normal for us to aspire," you would use the personal infinitive: É normal ambicionarmos...
Why does ambicionar not need a preposition before mais, unlike the English "aspire to"?
While the natural English translation is "aspire to", the Portuguese verb ambicionar is a direct transitive verb. You simply "ambition something", so no preposition is needed before the object mais.
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