Translation - Brazilian Portuguese-English - "Um dia descobrimos que se apaixonar é Inevitável"

I meant to say "discovered".

Hi serepoligloto,

Yes, you meant "discovered" and I edited to "discover" since the meaning in the original text in Brazilian Portuguese is one of a general statement. So, It has to be said in Simple Present.

I can imagine that you misunderstood the verb because in Portuguese, The Simple Past and the Simple Present Tense for the first person plural is the same, I mean:

"we discover" and "we discovered" are both "descobrimos". OK?

"Um dia" é uma locução adverbial -um dia [que não hoje]- que implica mudança de tempo gramatical, portanto pode ser passado ou futuro (se estivermos tratando duma linguagem coloquial, como: um dia, chegamos lá=um dia chegaremos lá). Não se aplica dessa forma em inglês também?

CC: lilian canale

Hi Casper,

Well... not exactly. In English we usually write exactly what we mean in terms of verb tenses.
You know that when translating English tenses we usually face challenges (that's why many students give up ), it's certainly a confusing field specially for those who speak Latin languages.
In this case, the sentence, as I explained above, should be into Simple Present because of its "general" intention.
Besides, for understanding "descobrimos" as past, (assuming that the person was talking about an specific moment in the past), the second verb should have been into past too. Agree?

And for your question: "one day" not usually determines a change in time, unless the speaker has a below average English.

I don't agree with two points: why should the second verb be in past tense, since it is a statement that has no relation with time (the fact that it's in infinitive means that it's "impessoal", otherwise, as "nos apaixonarmos", should actually turn the second verb into past tense)?...and I was talking about the portuguese "Um dia", not "One day".

I don't "want" you to change anything...just want to explain my point of view.

You misunderstood what I meant by the "second" verb, I think I didn't explain well.

The verb I was talking about was:
"Um dia descobrimos que se apaixonar é Inevitável"
for you have to make both verbs agree and it should read:
Um dia descobrimos que se apaixonar era Inevitável" (both into past)

Did I make myself understood now?

No, I didn't misunderstand.
Just forgot to write something.
-se apaixonar (the fact of anyone fall in love at any time) é inevitável
-nos apaixonarmos era inevitável

Did you get it now?

Não te incomodo mais com essa besteirinha...

Oh boy...