"They write a letter."
Translation:Eles escrevem uma carta.
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Is it not possible to leave out subject pronouns in Portuguese? I thought it was okay?
No, it's not always possible. It depends on the context. In the lesson's context, you have to use it
Interesting, I thought it would be more for emphasis or clarity just like in Spanish. What makes this sentence so?
Third-person pronouns are less likely to be omitted because they provide additional information about gender
Less likely, but not prohibited. I believe this being marked as an error is incorrect.
If we are talking about a group, we probably know if they are male, female, or both. And if not, we defer to the masculine as if it's mixed gender, no? Regardless, you're saying that in practice, the subject pronoun is used more often in the third person.
Yes, the subject pronoun is used more often in the third person because there is gender information. (ele, ela, eles, elas) = (he, she, they -all males or mixed-, they - all females).
Eu, nós, and tu, don't provide any gender information, so the subject pronouns in first (eu, nós) and second person (tu) are superfluous, whereas third-person subject pronouns are not superfluous.
Note that você and vocês are conjugated the same as third person
If you just say "Escrevem uma carta", you don't know if it's elas, eles or vocês.
Or if you say "Escreve uma carta", you don't know if it's ela, ele or você.
Please, explain why, what are the rules? (If there are other rules than the one explained by ThanKwee.)
Is "letra" only for the letters that build words and not for a correspondence? It didn't like it.
both 'carta' and 'letra' are 'letter', maybe 'correspondence' wasn't accepted because in portuguese it is 'correspondência', not the same as 'uma carta'
Non, I meant that I put "letra" and got it wrong. I was giving a definition for the intended use of "letra" as separate from the definition of a "letra" as a character in the alphabet for the sake of clarity. It didn't occur to me at the time that it was also a cognate. :)
Okay, "letra" should have been accepted! Thanks. :)
Even so, if "letra" only meant the letters in the alphabet it should have accepted it anyway. We can have all of the children write letter "A" or the letter of their choice.
If all the people you are referring to are female, you use 'elas'. If there is at least one male in the group you refer to, or if the gender isn't known, you use 'eles'.
as long as the verbs are declined , they terminations for each person , why is it necessary a subject , in this case 'elas 'or' eles '? Can't I say "Escrevo uma carta " ? or is it absolutely necessary "Eu escrevo uma carta " ?
The books I checked weren't conclusive, so, I found this. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Portuguese_pronouns
"The subject is always before a verb. Due to the high number of verb conjugations, this pronoun can be omitted if superfluous: Eu comi arroz ontem.; Comi arroz ontem. — “I ate rice yesterday.”"
My understanding is that it is not necessary. But, Portuguese is not my strongest language. I will check a book or two.
Thanks . I'm thinking that in French the verbs are declined too but , unlike ...let's say Greek , Romanian or Spanish , they always need a subject ( noun or pronoun ) . Seems Portuguese is more like French rather than Spanish ....
It's exactly the same thing in French, except you can't skip the pronouns.
In Portuguese, as explained above by ThanKwee, it's not good to skip the 3rd person pronoun, because you don't know from the ending if it's a feminine or a masculine (see explanations given by ThanKwee)
Not good <> wrong.
I'm pretty sure that in a continuous text, where there can be no doubt who 'they' are, the subject can be omitted. Thus in a lesson without any context, it should not be marked as wrong.
Because "a" can be translated either by "um", or by "uma", if the noun is masculine, you choose "um", if it's feminine - as "carta", you choose "uma".
is there a way to know which words are feminine and/or masculine or does that just come with experiance?
feminine words:
- cart
a= letter - cas
a= house - batat
a= potato - salad
a= salad
masculine words:
- quart
o= room - carr
o= car - sapat
o= shoe - bol
o= cake
it is a way, but there are some is exceptions like the "sofa" that is a masculine word
