Breakdown of Desta maneira, acabamos mais cedo.
de
of / from / by (means of transport) / wearing (attire)
cedo
early
mais
more
acabar
to finish
o este
the east
a maneira
the way, the manner
Questions & Answers about Desta maneira, acabamos mais cedo.
Why does the sentence start with Desta instead of just Esta?
Desta is a contraction of the preposition de (of/from) and the feminine word esta (this). To say 'this way' or 'in this way', Portuguese uses the set phrase desta maneira (literally 'of this way').
Why is there no word for 'we' before acabamos?
In Portuguese, you can usually drop the subject pronoun, like nós (we), because the verb ending already tells you who is doing the action. The -amos ending in acabamos clearly indicates that 'we' are finishing.
Wait, doesn't acabamos also mean 'we finished' in the past tense?
Yes! For regular -ar verbs like acabar, the nós form is spelled exactly the same in both the present and the simple past tense. Here, context tells us it means the present or near future ('we finish'), but in another context, it could mean 'we finished'.
How does the phrase mais cedo work to mean 'earlier'?
Portuguese does not have a word ending like '-er' to make comparisons. Instead, you just put mais (more) in front of the describing word. Since cedo means 'early', mais cedo literally translates to 'more early', which is how you say 'earlier'.
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