Breakdown of A tripulação prefere que nós embarquemos sem a bagagem.
nós
we
preferir
to prefer
sem
without
que
that (conjunction)
a tripulação
the crew
embarcar
to board
a bagagem
the luggage
Questions & Answers about A tripulação prefere que nós embarquemos sem a bagagem.
Why does this sentence use embarquemos instead of the normal present tense embarcamos?
Because of the phrase prefere que (prefers that). When a sentence uses a verb of desire or preference like preferir, and the person doing the action changes—from the crew (a tripulação) to us (nós)—the second verb must be in the present subjunctive form.
Why is embarquemos spelled with a qu instead of a c?
The base verb is embarcar. In the present subjunctive, -ar verbs take -e endings. However, if we just swapped the a for an e to make "embarcemos", the c would suddenly sound like an "s". To keep the hard "k" sound of embarcar, Portuguese changes the c to qu before the letter e.
"The crew" implies multiple people, so why is the verb prefere in the singular form?
A tripulação is a collective noun. Even though it represents a group of people, the grammatical word itself is singular, just like "the team" (a equipa) or "the family" (a família). Therefore, it must take the singular verb prefere.
Why is there an a before bagagem?
In English, you might just say "board without luggage" (no article), but Portuguese frequently uses definite articles (o, a, os, as) before nouns to talk about general categories or specific items. Since bagagem is a feminine noun, we use a after the preposition sem.
Learn A tripulação prefere que nós embarquemos sem a bagagem and more in Portuguese
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free