Julia Thompson wrote: > >> (...) >> >> �Inglaterra o Brasil? Que pierdan los dos > > OK, I *almost* got that.... (Having problems with the "pierdan".)
England or Brazil? Let the two of them lose. In most romanic languages, the verbs have a lot of variants, due to person, time, mode, etc. English does the trick by using a handful of auxiliary verbs. For example [in Portuguese - but Spanish, French, Italian, etc have the same verbal obnoxiousnesses] I will buy = eu comprarei They will buy = eles comprar�o I would buy = eu compraria We would buy = n�s comprar�amos I bought = eu comprei he bought = ele comprou etc And there's the _subjunctive_ mode, _imperative_ mode, etc. This _pierdan_ is the Present Tense of the Subjunctive Mode of the Third Person of the Plural of the verb _to lose_ :-) Alberto Monteiro
