Breakdown of Estas coisas foram inventadas por ti?
ser
to be
este
this (este, esta, estes, estas)
a coisa
the thing
por
through / by / for / because of
ti
you (singular, after prepositions)
inventar
to invent
Questions & Answers about Estas coisas foram inventadas por ti?
Why do we use foram inventadas instead of the active voice here?
The passive voice is used to put the focus on the subject being acted upon (Estas coisas) rather than who did the action. It is formed using the verb ser (here in the past tense as foram) followed by the past participle (inventadas).
Why does the past participle inventadas end in -as?
In the passive voice, the past participle acts like an adjective and must agree in gender and number with the subject of the sentence. Because Estas coisas is feminine and plural, the default past participle inventado changes to inventadas.
Why is the agent expressed as por ti and not por tu?
In Portuguese, when a pronoun comes right after a preposition like por (by), we have to use the prepositional form of the pronoun. For the informal 'you' (tu), that form is ti.
Why is the auxiliary verb ser in the simple past (foram) and not the continuous past (eram)?
We use the simple past (pretérito perfeito) foram because inventing something is a completed, one-time action. If you used eram, it would imply the things were being repeatedly or continuously invented in the past, which sounds strange in this context.
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