"Eu concordo com você que nós devíamos tentar de novo."

Translation: I agree with you that we should try again.

[Oinophilos]

How can you tell when the imperfect has a conditional meaning? "Ele queria beber água" apparently means "He wanted to drink water," but "Ele devia beber água" means "He should drink water"?

[emeyr]

Devia is an informal version of the conditional, having the same meaning.

[aristotle140]

How is nos deviamos tentar different than nos devemos tentar?

[emeyr]

Dever is used fluidly in Brazilian Portuguese.

Devemos usually means "must," while "devíamos" can mean "should".

Devíamos (imperfect) e deveríamos (conditional) are sometimes used interchangeably with the imperfect preferred in spoken BrP to the conditional.

[RJCurrier]

I'm not understanding the extent to which "deviamos" can mean "should" and can mean "must". I wrote "I agree with you that we must try again". But that's wrong.

[emeyr]

According to Whitlam's Modern Brazilian Portuguese, the use of "dever" covers a wide range of translations. Examples from Whitlam:

Você deve entregar essa carteira à policia.
You should/must hand that wallet to the police.

Vocês não deveriam/deviam estar aqui.
You shouldn't be here.

Não se deve mexer em direitos adquiridos.
One should not meddle with established rights.

O Presidente deve fazer uma declaração amanhã.
The President is due to make a declaration tomorrow.

O preço do petróleo não deve cair tão cedo.
The price of oil is not expected to fall any time soon.

[GlennaSol]

From what I read in other comments
devo/deve/devemos/devem = must (command, obligation)
devia/deviamos/deviam = should (advice, suggestion, polite request)

[scraff]

Yes, similar to being in a restaurant and saying "Eu quero uma cafe" vs "eu queria uma cafe". The first apparently sounds like a demand (I want) vs a request (I would like).

What confused me at first was that words like "queria" were used instead of "quereria" and "devia" instead of "deveria". The seconds is the correct way and the first is just the informal spoken way, it seems.

[nativ818634]

Hi emeyr,
So, in this case "deveriamos" can also be right?

[Rudychicken]

I wish this got an answer. I would like to know this too.

[ancranndarach]

If "devíamos" is in the imperfect, why is "we should" present?

[cinthiia_mc]

It's not present. Eu concordo is present, but "devíamos" is another way to say "deveríamos" (we call it the future of the past or conditional, to use for situations that would/could happen but didn't, or in this case, situations that are a possibility). e.g.: "Eu acho/achei que ela ia/iria na casa da tia" (I think/thought she would go to the aunt's house), for some reason we like to use the imperfect past in place of the future of the past. So, in this case devíamos is not acting like an imperfect past.

[mgaristova]

How would you say then " I agree with you that we HAD TO try again"?

[cinthiia_mc]

Uuh, good question. The same way as in "I agree with you that we should have tried again":
"Eu concordo com você que nós devíamos ter tentado de novo"
or "Eu concordo com você que nós tínhamos que ter tentado de novo". And yeah, both sentences can mean a possibility that didn't happen or something that really happened.

[unomundo]

I wrote '...we ought to try...' Why is that wrong?

[ChrisScafe]

"I concur with you that we should try again," should work, but does not. "Concur" is another way of saying "agree," and it's closer in its root to "concordo." Does anyone concur?

[morgangianola]

Could it be that "i agree with you that we should have tried again"?

[RodParker-]

'... we have to try again' marked wrong. Shouldn't this be accepted?

[jaclyn9189]

Why is "devíamos" used here instead of "deveríamos"?

[emeyr]

Devíamos (imperfect) e deveríamos (conditional) are often used interchangeably with the imperfect used as a less formal version of the conditional. Very common in BrP.

[machtibor]

According to http://www.conjuga-me.net/verbo-dever, deviamos is Pretérito imperfeito. I get that it is maybe colloquially used as a conditional as well, but Duolingo should first teach the standard language and maybe then some colloquialisms in extra lessons or something. This is a bit annoying.

[emeyr]

Most Brazilians will use the imperfect rather than the conditional.

The imperfect is easier to pronounce. As an example, a conditional form of "querer" is "querería" and the imperfect form is "queria". It's unusual to hear the conditional in day-to-day Portuguese, even amongst educated people.

Ciberdúvidas explains that the imperfect is preferred over the conditional because of the pronunciation of the extra syllable:

deveria vs devia
"Como a vogal da segunda sílaba do condicional é átona, e a consoante seguinte, r, é pouco intensa, vemos que há tendência para a queda destes elementos.
Este fenómeno fonético deu lugar a que o pretérito imperfeito tenha tendência para substituir o condicional simples."

[machtibor]

Thanks. And how is it in Portugal?

[emeyr]

Ciberdúvidas is based in Portugal, so it's likely that this applies to EuPt. In fact, I am sure of it because there are many dropped/reduced syllables in EuPt. BrPt is slower and most syllables get some stress.

[machtibor]

So if I use deveria, I will sound like I came form the 19th century? :-)

[emeyr]

Perhaps. A Brazilian friend with Phd. told me about a colleague who was teased about his grammatically-correct Portuguese. It would be like saying "It is I" or "With whom did you go to the movies?"

[DooleyThom]

Something is wrong at duolingo,i answered correctly:eu concordo com voce que nos deviamos tentar de novo,it was marked wrong!!!!