"Nós não tocamos em mulheres."
Translation:We do not touch women.
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Lembro de ter traduzido essa frase lá no meet up do Duolingo em São Paulo. Expressão um tanto esquisita, não? Joguei a frase no google e apareceu a legenda de um filme italiano chamado "Gomorra". o.O
"as mulheres" é mais especifico............ "em mulheres" num contexto mais geral.....
My understanding is that "em" in this sentence is totally optional, is not necessary, and the sentence would mean the exact same if "em" were removed. Is this correct?
"Tocar em" means physically touch somebody or something. Without the "em" it could be understood either as be touched "emotionally":
- "aquela cena do filme me tocou" -> "that scene from the movie has touched me".
...or even as play an instrument (even a bell):
- "eu toco guitarra" -> "I play [the] guitar".
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It is a Brazilian expression that means "We don't beat women" in the domestic violence sense.
That is good to know, thank you. But I think that should have been made clear in the options.
The sentence doesn't mean "we don't beat women". The sentence means "we don't touch women", and if there's a domestic violence background, then you would infer that "touch" means "beat" in this context.
But the sentence could also be said by a group of shy men that are afraid of physical content with people of the opposite sex. No domestic violence intended here.
Sometimes, Duolingo makes no sense : after three or four 'the boy speaks to the shark', 'There is a bee in the bottle', 'I touch the plate'... I think those are just statements making us work on vocabulary and grammar more than meaningful phrases... c'est un peu Radio Londres!!!
Sorry, could it be "Nós não tocamos nas mulheres" a better way to say that? thanks...
You have a good question.
You might imagine a reason someone says, "We do not touch women." It could be for religious reasons, or it could have to do with sexual orientation. It could be a sarcastic statement made by someone who very much likes to touch women. In all of these cases, "Nós não tocamos nas mulheres" would not be be better.
I will say, though, tocar em is a pretty weird construction to me!
Precisely.
To use "nas" is the same as using "the". That would mean the women are known, and the sentence "We do/did not touch the women" could be used to defend yourself against accusations, to make your female guests comfortable.
Oh my! In French we have lot of words which have different meanings despite the fact they have the same writing but 'tocar' meaning 'touch' and 'play music' and 'duty'... it is too hard for me to understand! :)))))
The usage is exactly the same in my native Spanish. It never actually means "duty". It's more like saying "it's my turn", or "it's up to me", or "it falls on me"; all of which are idiomatic phrases. As a visual aid, I imagine someone selecting from among a group of people and touching the chosen one.
Are there any rules on which verbs go with 'de' and which ones go with 'em' or do you just have to memorize them