Breakdown of Sem outra edição, nós falimos amanhã.
nós
we
amanhã
tomorrow
outro
other
sem
without
falir
to go bankrupt
a edição
the edition
Questions & Answers about Sem outra edição, nós falimos amanhã.
Why is the verb falir introduced in a lesson about defective verbs, when falimos looks perfectly normal here?
The form nós falimos (we go bankrupt) is completely regular. However, falir is a defective verb because it is missing several forms in the present tense. While you can say nós falimos and vós falis, the present indicative forms for eu, tu, ele/ela/você, and eles/elas/vocês simply do not exist in Portuguese.
Since I can't conjugate falir for "I" or "they" in the present tense, how would I say "I go bankrupt" or "they go bankrupt"?
Does falimos only mean "we go bankrupt" in the present, or can it also mean "we went bankrupt" in the past?
It can mean both! Just like other regular -ir verbs in European Portuguese (such as partir -> partimos), the nós conjugation is identical in the present indicative and the preterite (simple past). In this sentence, we only know it means "we go bankrupt" because the time marker amanhã (tomorrow) places the action in the future.
Why does the sentence use the present tense falimos for an event happening amanhã (tomorrow) instead of the future tense faliremos?
In conversational Portuguese, the present tense is frequently used to talk about future events, provided there is a context clue like amanhã. Using the present tense makes the future event sound immediate, certain, or inevitable. Nós falimos amanhã stresses that bankruptcy is an absolute certainty without that edition, whereas faliremos would sound slightly more formal and distant.
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