Question 1

Why use há de explicar here instead of just saying vai explicar or explicará?

Accepted Answer

The structure haver de + infinitive (like há de explicar) is widely used in Portugal to express a strong intention, a promise, or a strong conviction about a future event. While vai explicar neutrally states what will happen, há de explicar adds a reassuring tone of 'will definitely' or 'is bound to' explain it.

Question 2

I sometimes see this written as há-de. Which one is correct?

Accepted Answer

The correct modern spelling is há de as two separate words. Before the 1990 Spelling Agreement (Acordo Ortográfico) took effect, it was hyphenated as há-de. You will still frequently see the old hyphenated spelling in older books and casual writing, but formal modern Portuguese requires the space.

Question 3

Is the word representante strictly a masculine noun?

Accepted Answer

No, representante is a two-gender noun, meaning the word itself doesn't change based on gender. We only know it refers to a male representative here because of the masculine definite article O. A female representative would be A representante.

Question 4

Since this lesson focuses on aquando de, how would we use it here to say he will explain it 'at the time of the meeting'?

Accepted Answer

You would replace mais tarde with the prepositional phrase, resulting in: O representante há de explicar o acordo bilateral aquando da reunião. Notice how aquando de merges with the feminine article a (for a reunião) to become aquando da.

O representante há de explicar o acordo bilateral mais tarde.

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