Breakdown of A médica diz que ele tem de deixar de beber álcool completamente.
ele
he
a médica
the doctor (f)
beber
to drink
a
to / at (direction)
ter de
to have to
dizer
to say
que
that (conjunction)
deixar
to leave (behind) / to quit / to let (allow)
o álcool
the alcohol
completamente
completely
Questions & Answers about A médica diz que ele tem de deixar de beber álcool completamente.
What does deixar de mean when placed in front of beber?
The phrase deixar de followed by an infinitive verb like beber means to stop or quit doing that action. While the verb deixar on its own usually means to leave or let, adding de changes the meaning to quitting a habit or stopping an action.
Why are there two de's so close to each other in tem de deixar de beber?
It looks like a lot of repetition, but it is just two grammar rules stacked together! The first de belongs to tem de, which means "has to". The second de belongs to deixar de, which means "to stop". They link perfectly into a chain: tem de (has to) + deixar de (stop) + beber (drinking).
The English translation says "drinking", so why doesn't Portuguese use a continuous "-ing" verb here?
In English, the verb "stop" is often followed by an "-ing" word. However, in Portuguese, prepositions like de are almost always followed by the infinitive (the raw dictionary form of the verb). That is why we use the infinitive beber (to drink) instead of a continuous tense.
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