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- Topic: Portuguese >
- "Ele não se sente bem."
14 Comments
I interpreted this as "He does not feel himself well" and started laughing. Just though that'd be funny for some people (mostly English native speakers) to read.
It really shouldn't be funny to me, because I have this same structure in my second native language (Swedish*), but I'm still laughing!
*"Han känner SEJ inte frisk" = He feel himself not well
couldn't you also say "ele não sente bem" ? or do you have to say "ele não se sente bem" ?
You use "sentir" instead of "sentir-se" when you have the reason why. Ele sente medo do escuro = he is afraid of darkness. In this case, he doesnt feel "himself" well, not because of an external factor. Then, as it happens tp himself, use the reflexive verb "sentir-se"
I like your explanation of 'sentir-se'. A literal translation of 'sentir' may help make the difference between them even clearer.
Ele sente medo do escuro = (Literally) He feels fear of the darkness
It's one of those cases where English speakers need to know the literal translation to help them remember that Portuguese uses a different verb to get the meaning across.
In English, it is understood that this sentence is about his health. In Portuguese, and in Spanish, it most be specified that the feeling is about himself. "Ele não sente bem" without specifying that this is is about himself could imply that there is something wrong with his sense of touch: can't feel other objects very well.
The word Bem should also be equivalent to the word good,don't you think? In portuguese, both good and well are good translations to this phrase.
Yeah, in Portuguese we mix then when we compare to the usage of good and well in English. But,i think they'd rather more literal/matching words...
Does 'ele' not translate as 'it' in this case because 'sentir' is only used to refer to a human subject? "It doesn't feel good/right" is a common phrase in english.
