Word
Eu ganhar a lotaria amanhã?! Isso é ridículo!
Meaning
Me win the lottery tomorrow?! That is ridiculous!
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Eu ganhar a lotaria amanhã?! Isso é ridículo!
Why is the infinitive ganhar used here instead of a future or conditional tense like ganharei or ganharia?
This is the Repudiation Infinitive. It is used in exclamations to express shock, outrage, or total disbelief at an idea. Keeping the verb in the infinitive strips away time and reality, treating the action as an absurd concept rather than a real event. Notice how English does the exact same thing here: "Me win... ?!"
English uses the object pronoun "Me" in "Me win the lottery?!". Why does Portuguese use the subject pronoun Eu?
In Portuguese, even when a verb is in the infinitive, if it has a specific doer, you must use a subject pronoun (like eu, tu, ele). Object pronouns like mim can never be the subject of a verb in Portuguese, even in exclamations.
Why does the second sentence use Isso instead of Isto or Aquilo?
Isso is the perfect word to refer back to an abstract idea, statement, or situation that was just introduced in the conversation. Since the speaker is pointing back to the freshly mentioned concept of winning the lottery, isso is the natural choice.
Can this structure be used to express disbelief about something in the past, or is it only for the future like amanhã?