Original post by Danmoller | Archived post
Hey! Just got a "click" here!
I've seen some lessons containing lots of "future subjunctive" tenses, and many doubts. We often try to explain them as "possibilities in future" as opposed to an "actual situation", but I still feel something misses in those explanations to make it clear.
Of course it would be better to keep the translations simple, but let me try a "fancy" translation here. You can use "to happen to" as a way to try understanding better the meaning of the future subjunctive in Portuguese.
Future subjunctive often appear with particles "se" (if), "quando" (when) and "enquanto" (while).
Let's take verb "estar" for instance:
- Se ele estiver lá = If he happens to be there
- Quando ele estiver lá = When he happens to be there
An alternative Portuguese translation for the first sentence is "Se ele por acaso estiver lá" = "If he by chance is there" (The second sentence doesn't fit this form).
- Enquanto ele estiver lá -- now, I'm not sure if this one is ok using "happen to", but let's try: While he happens to be there. (This considers all the time from now to the future while he remains there, taking into acount the possibility of he going away at any time).
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