Breakdown of Se fores principiante e que não saibas esquiar, deves ter cuidado.
ser
to be
e
and
não
not / no
ter
to have
esquiar
to ski
saber
to know
dever
should / ought to
o cuidado
the care
que
that (conjunction)
se
if
o principiante
the beginner
Questions & Answers about Se fores principiante e que não saibas esquiar, deves ter cuidado.
Why is there a que right after the e in this sentence?
This is the vicarious que (o que vicário). It acts as a substitute for the conditional word se (if). Instead of repeating se and saying e se não..., Portuguese uses que to connect the second condition without sounding repetitive.
The first half uses the Future Subjunctive (fores). Why does the second half switch to the Present Subjunctive (saibas) after the que?
This is one of the trickiest rules about conjunction replacement! When que replaces the conditional se, the verb that follows it must change to the Present Subjunctive. Even though both clauses talk about the same hypothetical situation, you say Se fores (Future Subjunctive) but e que não saibas (Present Subjunctive).
Could I express the same idea without using this replacement que?
Why don't we need a word for "how" when saying "you don't know how to ski"?
In English, we say "know how to do something", but Portuguese expresses learned skills by simply pairing saber directly with an infinitive. You just say não saibas esquiar, which literally translates to "you don't know to ski".
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