Breakdown of Será que o capitão disse para nós seguirmos a seta?
ser
to be
nós
we
para
to / for
o capitão
the captain
dizer
to say
seguir
to follow / to carry on
que
that (conjunction)
a seta
the arrow
Questions & Answers about Será que o capitão disse para nós seguirmos a seta?
Why do we use the personal infinitive seguirmos here instead of the imperfect subjunctive?
For reported commands ('he told us to...'), you have two main options in Portuguese. You can use dizer que + subjunctive (like disse que nós seguíssemos), or you can use dizer para + personal infinitive (like disse para nós seguirmos). Both are entirely natural, but the para + personal infinitive structure is especially common in everyday speech.
Do we actually need the pronoun nós after para?
No, you can easily drop it and just say disse para seguirmos a seta. Because the personal infinitive seguirmos already has the -mos ending, it is completely clear who is supposed to follow the arrow. Including nós here just adds a little extra emphasis to the subject.
Why start the question with Será que instead of simply asking O capitão disse...?
While O capitão disse...? is a standard yes-or-no question, starting with Será que adds a layer of doubt, speculation, or curiosity. It translates literally as 'Will it be that...?' but in practice, it turns the question into something more like 'I wonder if the captain said...?' or 'Did the captain actually say...?'.
I know dizer means 'to say', but can it also mean 'to tell' when giving instructions?
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