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I have to say that the three verbs ver, vir and virar are going to give me sleepless nights trying to differentiate between them :O
Yes. I keep getting confused. This is one of those things to make a note of and practice. I also get confused with sentar/sentir
Virar = to turn
- Eu viro, você vira, nós viramos, elas viram
Ver = to see
- Eu vejo, você vê, nós vemos, eles veem (or viram past tense)
Vir = to come
- Eu venho, ele vem, nós vimos, eles vêm
Sentar = to sit
- Eu sento, você senta, nós sentamos, eles sentam
Sentir = to feel
- Eu sinto, você sente, nós sentimos, elas sentem
At least the "sentar/sentir" thing you can forgive. As regular verbs both "Eu" forms of the simple present would be "sento" so changing one to "sinto" is a good move. However, someone particularly evil came up with the "ver/vir" conjugations. Look at these:
simple past (preterite): vi, viu, vimos, viram
pluperfect: vira, vira, víramos, viram
subjunctive imperfect: visse, visse, víssemos, vissem
subjunctive future: vir, vir, virmos, virem
That list was found by following the regular conjugation rules for "vir". But, the strange thing is they belong to "ver" instead!
Complementing with the conjugations for "vir":
simple past (preterite): vim, veio, viemos, vieram
pluperfect: viera, viera, viéramos, vieram
subjunctive imperfect: viesse, viesse, viéssemos, viessem
subjunctive future: vier, vier, viermos, vierem
Thank you. Of course when you have two verbs like "vir" and "ver", which when stripped of their endings are identical, something has got to give. :-)
Just a question: a Brazilian friend of mine said to me that "I can't come tomorrow" translates into "Não posso ir amanhã.". Shouldn't it be "Não posso vir amanhã" ?
I think that's a English quirk rather than a Portuguese one. The literal translation of "ir" to English is "to go" and the translation of "vir" is "to come". But sometimes in English you use "to come" when you actually mean "to go" (exs: "I can't come to your house tomorrow", "I'll come over", "I'll come by"). In Portuguese it's simpler, "vir" always means coming from somewhere or with someone, while "ir" always means going to somewhere or away from someone. That's why "I can't come tomorrow" can be translated to "Não posso ir amanhã" (the sentence with "vir" is also a correct translation): because you say "come" but you really mean "go".
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I disagree. The difference is that English chooses go/come based on the direction at the time of the action while Portuguese chooses based on the position of the speaker at the time it is said. So in English you can always say "Will you come to my party?" (assuming you will be there!) whereas in Portuguese you'd use vir if you are at home when you say it and ir otherwise.
Yeah, someone obviously had fun forming up the vaguest sentences they could come up with for these verbs (>_>)
If "We turn towards the teacher." is correct, then "We turn toward the teacher." should be too. Towards is the British version. http://grammarist.com/spelling/toward-towards/
Easiest way to distinguish ver & vir: the 'e' in ver is like an eye i.e. to see. The 'i' in vir is like a leg i.e. to come.thanks to my portuguese teacher!
Bad Duolingo. "Toward" is equally as good as "towards" in American English, but they count it wrong. I'll clutter here and report the error as well.
Especially when you are asked to go from correct English to DL's version of correct English. I will never forget "I used to err". Try saying that on the streets of NY (or anywhere else in the English-speaking world) and see how far you get!
"Turned" is past tense of "turn". There's nothing present about this sentence.
Ah I just noticed that now. It has always accepted "we turn to the teacher" for me.
The past and present in portuguese are both "viramos," which is why Duo got confused.
Does it strictly mean "we turned to the teacher (physically)," or can it also mean "we turned to the teacher for help/suggestions/directions/etc.?"
Same confusion here too...I was actually thinking the latter situation as I translated it as "turned to...", not "turned towards...".
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Looked at is the past. We are learning the present. Nós aprendemos o presente
Is anyone getting past tense answers like Saw (to see) for Viran.....is it present or past?
It didn't accept my answer, "They turned toward the teacher.". Big difference in, "We turned to the teacher.", meaning that the reason they turned to the teacher was to ask a question to an answer they didn't know. Or they just turned to the teacher. But if they turn toward the teacher is because they want to face him and have eye contact with him, if perhaps, he's moving around the room lecturing. Someone please comment if they understand what I'm saying.
I think fatisch is asking whether "virar para" means physically turning of the body towards someone/something or figuratively changing tack by going to someone instead (e.g. for help). I think it can mean both, mas precisamos da ajuda dos amigos Brasileiros!
Nós=we. Eles/Elas=They. So no it shouldn't accept 'They turned toward the teacher' as this sentence begins with Nós.
I don't know who gave you -1... I'll give you your point back. Anyway, "turned" is acceptable in this sentence because "viramos" can mean both present and past tenses.
para vs por - so confusing
how would you say we turned for the teacher "Nos viramos por o professor"?
yes. [Nós] if you are implying "for the sake of" Para implies an end, goal, destination, objective; Por implies means, reason, through.
It is also accepting "we looked at the teacher" using the Ver verb, even though it appears that the lesson is trying to teach us the Virar verb.
that should be reported, "viramos" is only related to the verb "virar".
(actually that's not exactly true, there is a tense form of "ver", the more-than-perfect past tense which is "víramos" (with accent on the i). But that tense is so unused (you will basically only find it in poems) that I don't think it should even be taken into account)
Do you mean in a figurative sense? It's a stretch because, even without considering whether it translates the Portuguese, "look to" (or "turn to") probably needs a little more context: "We look/turn to the teacher for help" is the classic example.
Having just read the dictionary entry for "virar", I notice that another translation of this sentence could be: "We face(d) the teacher".
Yeah, it is a figurative sense. When I first saw this sentence, I thought of "look to". =)
If a teacher asks a group of students to turn, why shouldn't "We're turning for the professor" be correct?
\1. DL is not keen on English contractions in preference for possessives.
\2. We are turning is a different tense and introduces an auxiliary verb (are) to the sentence, and the level this exercise is at in the DL lessons is verbs simple Present 2.
http://www.ef.edu/english-resources/english-grammar/simple-present-tense/
versus:
http://www.ef.edu/english-resources/english-grammar/present-continuous/
\3. There is a difference between turn to and turn for and in this case it certainly makes more sense for the former as the latter seems odd, unless it is a Dance, Modeling University, or maybe Barber college...
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Nós viramos para o professor, we turn to the professor [teacher]
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Nós viramos pelo professor (pelo = por + o), we turn for the professor
This isn't present this is past! This should be in the Verbs Past 1 >.<..... Cost me a heart
That's annoying, but as others have said, "viramos" is both present and past so Duolingo should accept both interpretations. According to reno300 and zallen1868 answers like "We turn to the teacher" and "We turn towards the teacher" are marked correct alongside the past tense version shown at the top of this discussion.
It is the same as the Spanish "para", but they only mean "for" in specific contexts (this not being one of them).
Gonna echo victor4000's question here and ask why is "Nos viramos ao professor" not correct? On that same note, how would you actually say "We turn for the professor" in Portuguese? (as in we did the professor a favor and turned a certain direction)
I can't give you a good answer on this, but "nós viramos ao professor" doesn't sound right in Portuguese. I think it's because the word "ao" (or, to be correct, the preposition "a", since "ao"="a"+"o") doesn't give a sense of direction: it is more likely to be used when you have to address the teacher directly. For example "nós damos uma maçã ao professor" (we give an apple to the teacher) implies that you actually have to go to the teacher and give him the apple. But "para" expresses that sense of direction here: in this context it means "toward(s)". You turn in the direction of the teacher, so you use "para". Another example is "we talk to the teacher": that would be translated to "nós falamos para o professor" because you don't have to move towards the teacher, you just turn in their direction to talk.
Thanks a lot, very helpful! And what about the example, "we turn for the professor"?
That would be understood as "we turn on behalf of the professor" or "we turn because the professor asked us to" and translated as "nós viramos pelo professor" ("pelo" = "por" + "o")
Got it. Could you also use a contraction in the original sentence and say, "Nos viramos pro Professor" ?
What is the difference between vira and gira? Is vira turn and gira spin? I was able to use gira instead of vira once and it didn't seem to matter so can someone explain?
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I think that's right, although I'm not a native speaker. I remember this by thinking that a V looks like turning a corner and a G looks like spinning around.
You're right, and that's a clever way of recalling which is which. see:
