"We are going to understand what she said."
Translation:Nós vamos entender o que ela disse.
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I don't know. Falou would be translated to "spoke" and "We are going to understand what she spoke" sounds weird. I think you need a preposition after spoke. Like, "We are going to understand what she spoke about." Otherwise, I'd go with "disse".
It's ok.
Falou e disse are almost the same thing.
Dizer is to say something to someone.
Falar can mean the same, but can also be a conversation.
Only "falou" can use the "com" preposition: "falou com ele" (talked with him), and this means a conversation.
But both can be direct: "falou/disse aquilo". (no need to use aditional stuff like in English). Not a conversation, just a verbal message.
Both can use "a" or "para" prepositions too. Meaning "to say something TO someone"
"Falei/disse para ele que era complicado" (I told him it was complicated)
Actually we brazilian dont use 'about' in the end of the sentences. So it's right to say Nós vamos entender o que ela disse/falou.
I put nós vamos entender que ela disse and was failed. I never, ever know when to put o que and when just que.
It can, typically as part of a question. See danmoller's discussion of question words here: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/815384.
In a sentence like "Que dia bonito!" it would be translated as what not that.
If it was "what she said about me," would que be acceptable then? Or if it was "we know what she said was ugly"?
Interesting second example, it shows the difference in a single sentence, because it must be:
- Nós sabemos que o que ela disse foi feio = We know (that) what she said was ugly
Conjunction "That" cannot be omitted in Portuguese.
The first phrase is not really a fully formed sentence, so I've changed it to "What she said about me is not true!". My (possibly faulty) translations would be:
- "O que ela disse sobre mim não é verdade!"
- "Nós sabemos o que ela disse foi feio"
In both those cases "what" is a pronoun, that is it is standing in for something else. The pronoun form of "what" is written "o que".
I meant it as an addendum to the original question "We are going to understand what she said (about me)." If que refers to something specific o can be left out but obviously not in my examples.
I'm not sure this approach is complete, but let's try this:
- O que must be used as a pronoun when the noun it replaces is not in the sentence.
- Que must be used as a pronoun when it refers to a noun in the sentence. (You might replace this for "o/a qual", "os/as quais", and for "quem" if it's a person)
- Que must be used as a simple conjunction when it's not a pronoun, to introduce new clauses (these clauses are often not the object of the main verb).
Let's try it....
- Entender o que ela disse - To uderstand what she said (Case 1)
- Entender as coisas que ela disse - To understand the things that she sayd (Case 2 - "Things" is there)
- Entender que ela falou - To understand that she spoke (case 3)
- Entender que o que ela falou é bom = To understand that what she said is good (cases 3 and 1. Because "o que" is not the object of "understand", here it's intransitive)
- Entender que as coisas que ela disse... = To understand that the things (that) she said.... (cases 3 and 2)
Sorry, I should have got the connection. Anyway, in the sentence "Que dia bonito!", "que" is working like an adjective (or determiner - I think that's the jargon) so when "que" works like that it can be translated as "what". Here are a couple more (possibly faulty) examples I made up:
- Você não sabe que problemas eu tive ontem (what problems)
- Eu sei a que horas a loja abre (at what time)
I'm sorry to disagree, but I believe "que" can be translated as "what" even when it is not part of a question (I tried to give some examples in another comment). Also, it is not clear to me that "que" is ever a demonstrative pronoun.
If the word que is attached to another word, then you use "que" without the o. If the word is by itself, then you use "o que." For example, if I say, "what did you say?" The word what is by itself, so in Portuguese, that would be, "o que você falou?" If I say, "what book should I read?" The word what is attached to the word book, so in Portuguese, this would be "que livro eu divia ler?"
Doesn't anyone else find the mix of future and past in this sentence odd?
