Meaning of the verb ir

Learning Portuguese Forum - Ask a Tutor
1

Hello!

Hope I’m posting this in the right forum.

I’ve been reading portuguese for about 5 days, so it’s safe to say I’m a beginner. :slight_smile:

I have come across the irregular verb “ir” a couple of times and there are some things that confuse me.

The translation of “ir” seems to be “to go” in most cases. But I have also found places where it can mean “to be”, “to come” and “to have”. I might be wrong here, but please see the following sentences (Not only in present sense):

Quando foste?
When were you (LingQ translation) OR could it also mean:
When did you go ?

Quando é que vai?
When are you coming? (Translation in LingQ) OR could it also mean:
When are you going? (Pretty different meaning :))

Fomos ontem
We went yesterday

Estes foram instituídos devido à numerosa minoria ucraniana que vive na Rússia.
These have been instituted because of the large Ukrainian minority living in Russia.
(This is a much more complex text of course, and I don’t understand much of it. But I don’t understand why they are using IR in this sentence. Could they not have used the verm TER instead?)

Would a word for word translation be something like:
These went instituted because of the large Ukrainian minority lives in Russia.

Isto inclui, em particular, as notas de rodapé que foram hoje aprovadas no texto.
This includes, in particular, the footnotes that were adopted in the text today.

How could you translate this text directly to english word for word? Something like (thanks google translate):

“This includes, in particular, the footnotes that went today approved in the text”

That actually makes sense to me now when I write it out that way. :slight_smile:

If you have any imput, I would greatly appriciate this.

Thank you,
Christian

2

Hi Christian
You are mixing 2 different verbs: “ir” and “ser”
They have some forms in common, which of course can be confusing. In fact, the “pretérito perfeito”, and some other tenses are exactly the same in both verbs.
Take a look at the 2 verbs in this site:

I’ll comment your sentences in more detail in the next post.

3

Quando foste?
When were you (LingQ translation) OR could it also mean:
When did you go ?
if you just say “Quando foste?” it means When did you go ? (verb ir)

Quando é que vai?
When are you coming? (Translation in LingQ) OR could it also mean:
When are you going? (Pretty different meaning :))
This is a bit out of context, you are supposed to mention where to…
Quando é que vais a Lisboa? (verb ir) for example.
Could be part of conversation like this:
A: Preciso de ir a Lisboa.
B. Quando vais? (you understand that the destination is Lisboa)
When are you going to Lisbon?

Fomos ontem - verb ir
We went yesterday

Estes foram instituídos devido à numerosa minoria ucraniana que vive na Rússia.
These have been instituted because of the large Ukrainian minority living in Russia.
(This is a much more complex text of course, and I don’t understand much of it. But I don’t understand why they are using IR in this sentence. Could they not have used the verm TER instead?)

In this case you have the verb “ser” as a auxiliary of the passive voice.

O caçador matou o coelho. > O coelho foi morto pelo caçador.

Isto inclui, em particular, as notas de rodapé que foram hoje aprovadas no texto.
This includes, in particular, the footnotes that were adopted in the text today.

This translation is correct. You have again a sentence in the passive voice.

4

Muito obrigado, dona Fernanda!

I have a lot to learn. :slight_smile:

So, it would be possible for me to say:

Quando foste?
When did you go?

And

Quando foste comer?
When did you eat?

Using both ir and ser.

5

Dona não, por favor, só Fernanda!
In those 2 sentences:

Quando foste?

and

Quando foste comer?

it’s the verb “ir” in both.

6

Desculpe Fernanda e obrigado novamente!