Breakdown of Quando há um imprevisto, acabamos por alterar o percurso.
um
a / an / some (all forms)
haver
to be (there is / there are)
quando
when
por
through / by / for / because of
o imprevisto
the unforeseen event
acabar por
to end up (doing)
alterar
to alter
o percurso
the route (course, path taken)
Questions & Answers about Quando há um imprevisto, acabamos por alterar o percurso.
Why does this sentence use por between acabamos and alterar?
The structure acabar por followed by an infinitive (here, alterar) is a set phrase that means "to end up doing something". Without por, acabar just means "to finish", but together they show the final result or outcome of a situation.
Is imprevisto a noun or an adjective in this sentence?
It is used as a noun here, meaning "an unforeseen event" or "an unexpected situation" (notice the article um before it). It is built from the prefix im- (not) and previsto (predicted), which is the past participle of the verb prever (to foresee).
Could I use tem instead of há to say "there is" an unforeseen event?
In European Portuguese, the verb haver (conjugated here as há) is the correct and most natural way to say "there is" or "there are". Using ter (like tem) for existence is very common in Brazilian Portuguese, but in Portugal, you should always stick to haver.
Why is acabamos in the present tense instead of the past?
The present tense is used in both halves of this sentence (há and acabamos) because it describes a general habit or a conditional rule. It expresses "Whenever there is an unforeseen event, we end up altering the route" rather than a specific event that already happened.
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