Learn Portuguese (Portugal): Nem ando a ver o documentário, nem a estudar programação. - I have neither been watching the documentary nor studying programming.

Nem ando a ver o documentário, nem a estudar programação.

I have neither been watching the documentary nor studying programming.

Breakdown of Nem ando a ver o documentário, nem a estudar programação.

Questions & Answers about Nem ando a ver o documentário, nem a estudar programação.

Why use ando a ver instead of estou a ver?

The structure andar a plus the infinitive shows an action has been happening repeatedly or continuously over a recent period of time. It usually translates to "have been doing" in English. If you used estou a ver, it would mean you are watching the documentary right at this exact moment.

Why is the second verb just a estudar instead of ando a estudar?

This avoids repeating the verb ando. When you have two continuous actions connected in the same sentence, you only need the auxiliary verb (ando) for the first one. However, you must keep the preposition a before the second infinitive (a estudar) to keep the continuous meaning intact.

How does nem... nem... work here?

The pair nem... nem... translates to "neither... nor...". It is used to link two negative alternatives. Because nem already carries a negative meaning, you don't need to add the word não to the beginning of the sentence.

Why is there no article before programação?

Here, programação refers to the broad, general field of programming. When talking about studying academic subjects or general disciplines after the verb estudar, it is common to leave out the definite article. On the other hand, o documentário uses the article o because it refers to one specific documentary.