- Forum >
- Topic: Portuguese >
- "Do they sell books?"
"Do they sell books?"
Translation:Eles vendem livros?
15 Comments
If I just say "vendem livros?", is the elas or elos implied by the conjugation?
2822
You could say it, but it wouldn't be specific enough.
"Vendem livros?" could mean:
- Vocês vendem livros?
- Eles vendem livros?
- Elas vendem livros?
The fact that "they" is used suggests that the people in question are already in context, e.g. Pinky and Perky (eles/elas), as opposed to you and your wife (vocês), so there would be no ambiguity by leaving out "eles/elas".
- 140
No guys, you can't do that (I mean, you can, but...). If you say "Vendem livros?" it can mean both "Eles/Elas vendem livros?" OR "Vocês vendem livros?", so unless the context is already given (which in Duolingo, it never is) to the person you are talking with, you do not omit the pronoun. Also, people tend to think that just because in spanish they omit a lot their pronouns we do the same in portuguese. Well, maybe in Portugal they do, but in Brazil we use the pronouns a lot. We do not always omit it.
Well, the conjugation does imply you're talking about eles/elas, but it sounds wrong. I don't think you can omit the subject here.
Why is 'Eles vendem livros' not appropriate here? I am not sure if Eles vs. Elas was very clearly articulated early on. Thanks!
- 2822
Eles vendem livros should be accepted. And I think that it is in fact the recommended answer. =)
Can somebody please explain the difference between when using "(os) livros" and "livros" ONLY is correct? I still don't get it...
In this case, it's the same as English.
Do they sell books? -- Generic. No book specified. Wants to know if they sell books in that store, for example.
Do they sell the books? -- This means speaker and listener know which books are being mentioned. If they don't, this will be immediately followed by "What/Which books???"
Some other cases might be tricky, but usually, when it's not very clear it means 1) it's an expression/it's the way it is, there's no proper grammar explanation; OR 2) it doesn't really matter xD
But it mostly works on a case by case basis, so... =\
