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- Topic: Portuguese >
- "Ele não quis fazer isso."
12 Comments
So how do you know the difference between poderia and podia. Queria, quisesse, and quis etc.
okay, it's kinda hard to explain it in English but I'm gonna try. "poderia" is related to future possibilities or past conditions. an example: "eu poderia comprar aquele sanduíche se eu quisesse/I could buy that sandwich if I wanted to" as a future possibility or "Se você tivesse me dito que era seu aniversário eu poderia ter te preparado uma surpresa/if you had told me that it was your birthday I could have prepared you a surprise" as a past condition. "podia", on the other hand, is used as a lost or former capability/ability. an example: "quando eu era jovem eu podia correr por várias horas à fio/when I was younger I could run for many hours straight" or "quando eu trabalhava na chefia do departamento eu podia tomar café da manhã de graça/when I worked in the menaging office of the department I could have free breakfast". hope I helped :)
I think people also use the word "podia" to express a wish for the future.
"Está muito calor. Bem que seu irmão podia (poderia) comprar um sorvete."
It is the same meaning. For "refused" you could also use "ele se negou a fazer"
actually, no. the meaning is similar but "recusou" is translated as "refused" and "não quis" as "didn't want". you can "recusar/refuse" an offer ou someone may "não querer/don't want" to do you a favor" hope I helped :)
I see that bendespain's answer is still being marked as wrong three years later. (It was my answer as well). Does DL NEVER update things? If I could find out how to cancel my Plus subscription, I would. They don't make it easy.
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With the auxilary verb do (did in the past tense) you just write the "bare" infinitive of the following main verb (want), leaving out the to in the "full" infinitive (to want). Examples: I do not want something [Present tense], I did not want something [Past tense], He did not want to do it [Past tense]
