Breakdown of Não vimos o envelope. Podes mostrar-no-lo?
não
not / no
ver
to see
poder
can / may (verb)
mostrar
to show
o envelope
the envelope
no-lo
it to us / them to us (contracted pronoun)
Questions & Answers about Não vimos o envelope. Podes mostrar-no-lo?
How is the word -no-lo formed?
It is a contraction of two pronouns: nos (to us) and o (it, replacing the masculine noun envelope). When combining them, the 's' at the end of nos is dropped and an 'l' is added to the o, creating -no-lo (it to us).
Why doesn't the verb mostrar drop its 'r' and take an accent, like it does in mostrá-lo?
Infinitive verbs only drop their final 'r' (and get an accent) when the attached pronoun starts with a vowel, like o or a. Because the combined pronoun -no-lo starts with a consonant, the verb mostrar keeps its 'r' and its normal spelling.
Why are there two hyphens in mostrar-no-lo?
In European Portuguese, when you attach a combined double pronoun to a verb, you must hyphenate both parts. The first hyphen connects the verb to the indirect object (no), and the second hyphen attaches the direct object (lo).
Is vimos from the verb ver (to see) or vir (to come)?
In this sentence, it is the past tense of ver, meaning 'we saw' (or here, 'we did not see'). It is a tricky word because it is spelled exactly the same as the present tense of vir (we come), but the context makes it clear we are talking about seeing an object.
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