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Eles despacham-se porque estão atrasados.

Eles despacham-se porque estão atrasados.
They hurry up because they are late.
From Lesson 72:Reflexive verbs (me, te, se, nos)·Portuguese (Portugal)

Questions & Answers about Eles despacham-se porque estão atrasados.

Why is there a -se attached to the end of despacham?
Despachar-se is a reflexive verb. In English, you just say 'hurry up', but in Portuguese, the structure translates more like 'they hurry themselves'. The pronoun se represents 'themselves' here. In Portugal, we normally attach reflexive pronouns to the end of the verb with a hyphen in simple positive sentences.
What does despachar mean if I don't use the reflexive pronoun?
Without the reflexive pronoun, despachar usually means 'to send', 'to ship', or 'to deal with' something (like dispatching a package or a task). Adding the reflexive pronoun completely changes its meaning to 'to hurry up'.
Why use estão here instead of são?
We use estão (from the verb estar) because being late is a temporary condition. If you used são (from the verb ser), it would imply they are inherently unpunctual people by nature, rather than just running late at this specific moment.
Would atrasados change if this sentence was about a group of women?
Yes! Atrasados acts as an adjective here, so it has to match the gender of the people it describes. If the group was all women (Elas), the sentence would be: Elas despacham-se porque estão atrasadas.

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