Breakdown of É preciso que cada funcionário respeite o regulamento.
que
that (conjunction)
o funcionário
the employee
cada
each
é preciso
it is necessary
respeitar
to respect
o regulamento
the regulation
Questions & Answers about É preciso que cada funcionário respeite o regulamento.
Why does this sentence use respeite instead of the normal present tense respeita?
The phrase É preciso que (It is necessary that) expresses a need or requirement. In Portuguese, impersonal expressions of necessity followed by que force the next verb into the Present Subjunctive. Because respeitar is an -ar verb, its third-person singular subjunctive ending is -e, making it respeite.
Is it possible to express this same idea without using the subjunctive?
Yes! If you drop the word que, you can use the infinitive instead. You could say É preciso cada funcionário respeitar o regulamento. Both structures are very common, but remembering that que acts as a strict trigger for the subjunctive is key.
Could I use É necessário que instead of É preciso que?
Absolutely. They mean exactly the same thing and both trigger the subjunctive when followed by que. É preciso tends to be slightly more common in everyday spoken Portuguese, while É necessário can sound just a tiny bit more formal, but they are completely interchangeable here.
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