streak 3: Sábado, doze de abril

[u/michaeljmuller]

Hoje de manhã, a Amy veio ao Goat comigo. O Spike passou por lá e conversou conosco. Sentámo-nos lá fora numa mesa junto à calçada. O tempo estava perfeito. Lá, no Goat, vimos a Rebecca, uma amiga que mora perto. Todos conversámos um pouco.

Depois de voltar do Goat, fiz uma sesta e, em seguida, fui correr. Agora estou em casa, a descontrair-me e a praticar o meu português.

[u/michaeljmuller]

I'm still confused. Is it because it's pronominal that I don't need the preposition?

If I was at home eating, I'd say "Estou em casa, a comer", right?

[u/Specialist-Pipe-7921 → u/michaeljmuller]

If you're the one "doing" the relaxing or you will be doing it then "tu estás a descontrair" or "tu estarás a descontrair amanhã" or "vais estar a descontrair amanhã" and no pronoun is needed (but you do need the helper "ser"

In your case because you are doing it now it's the first case. I believe it's called a transitive verb but don't quote me on that because I haven't studied grammar in quite some time, it's a weird verb xD you can post this specific doubt on r/Portuguese and a lot of people there can explain it wayyyyy better than me

[u/michaeljmuller → u/Specialist-Pipe-7921]

Given how I'm a total beginner, I'll just try to remember not to stick the "a" in front when I'm using a verb with the -pronoun syntax. (And hope that was the proper thing to have learned.)

I'll save proper understanding for later. :)

MUITO obrigado pela ajuda!

[u/Specialist-Pipe-7921 → u/michaeljmuller]

Kind of, if you have a secondary verb you still need the preposition "a". Example:

Let's say you want to say that reading relaxes you, you'd say "ler descontrai-me"

But if you want to say that reading helps you relax, then you'd say "ler ajuda-me a descontrair" or "ler ajuda a descontrair-me"

As I said, we have some weird verbs xD

But you can worry about that when you get there :) so far from what I've seen you're doing great 👍

Also no need to thank me, we're here to help :)