Breakdown of Não fazemos nada se a documentação não estiver pronta.
não
not / no
estar
to be (temporary / location)
pronto
ready
fazer
to do
nada
nothing / anything
se
if
a documentação
the documentation
Questions & Answers about Não fazemos nada se a documentação não estiver pronta.
Why do we use estiver instead of the present tense está here?
The word se (if) introduces a condition that might happen in the future. In Portuguese, when an 'if' clause talks about a future possibility, we must use the Future Subjunctive tense.
Where does the irregular form estiver come from?
For irregular verbs, you build the Future Subjunctive from the 'they' form of the simple past tense. The past tense is estiveram (they were). You drop the '-am' to get the base estiver-, and since the subject a documentação is a singular 'it', you don't add any extra ending.
Why are both Não and nada used in the first clause?
Why use a form of estar for 'to be' instead of ser?
We use estar because being ready (pronta) is a temporary state or condition of the documentation, rather than a permanent characteristic.
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