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Study Resource: Conjunctions that trigger the imperfect subjunctive

By: Fabiana Dametto Oliveira
Associated Articles

These activities are part of our Brazilian Portuguese Grammar series. The skills we are practicing here are covered in our article:

The following conjunctions are often used before the imperfect subjunctive in Brazilian Portuguese.

Type
Conjunction
Example
Concession

ainda que

even if/even though

Ainda que eu soubesse a verdade, não poderia te contar o que aconteceu naquele dia.

Even if I knew the truth, I couldn’t tell you what happened that day.

embora

although

Embora elas morassem em cidades diferentes, se falavam todos os dias por telefone.

Although they lived in different cities, they spoke every day on the phone.

mesmo que

even though

Mesmo que você saísse de casa agora, não chegaria lá às 8 horas.

Even if you left the house now, you wouldn’t be there at 8 o’clock.

Condition

caso

in case

Caso a entrega chegasse, eu poderia recebê-la.

In case the delivery arrived, I could receive it.

a não ser que

unless

A não ser que eles falassem baixo, precisavam sair da sala.

Unless they kept their voices down, they needed to leave the room.

desde que

as long as

Eu iria à praia desde que fizesse sol.

I would go to the beach as long as it was sunny.

Purpose

a fim de que

in order to

Eles chegaram mais cedo a fim de que sentassem em um bom lugar.

They arrived early so they could get a good seat.

para que

in order to / to

Nós paramos de falar para que ele não pensasse que estávamos falando dele.

We stopped talking so he wouldn’t think we were talking about him.

Time

antes que

before

Eles pararam no posto antes que a gasolina acabasse.

They stopped at the gas station before they ran out of gas.

até que

until

Ela estudou muito até que passasse em todos os testes.

She studied hard until she passed all the tests.

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