7. Personalized Infinitive
Regular Verbs |
Irregular Verbs | ||||||
eu |
tomar comer abrir |
nós |
tomarmos comermos abrirmos |
eu |
poder querer dar |
nós |
podermos querermos darmos |
ele,ela, você |
tomar comer abrir |
eles, elas, vocês |
tomarem comerem abrirem |
ele,ela, você |
poder querer dar |
eles, elas, vocês |
poderem quererm darem |
Observation
The personalized infinitive is a way to indicate person and number even when the verb does not need to be conjugated. It is, in essence, a way to minimize ambiguity. Spanish does not have any morphological way of expressing the personalized infinitive. But Spanish does utilize many pronominal verbs where pronouns reduce the ambiguity.
It is very easy to form the personalized infinitive and there are no irregular forms. For both regular and irregular verbs simply add "-mos" and "-em" to the first and third person plural endings. Notice, however, that the personalized infintive of regular verbs looks just like the future subjunctive. The examples which follow show some of the places where the personalized infintive is used.
| Ambiguous | 1a. Depois de sair, eu vou falar com José | After leaving, I will talk to José. |
| Pers. Infinitive | 1b. Depois de sairmos, eu vou falar com José. | After we leave, I will talk to José. |
| Ambiguous | 2a. Eles disseram para ficar um pouco mais. | The said to stay a little longer. |
| Pers. Infinitive | 2b. Eles disseram para ficarmos um pouco mais. | They asked us to stay a little longer. |
| Ambiguous | 3a. Preciso ajudar até terminar a tarefa. | I need to help until finishing the assignment. |
| Pers. Infinitive | 3b. Preciso ajudar até terminarem a tarefa. | I need to help until they finish the assignment. |
| Ambiguous | 4a. Ao achar a resposta, eles vão ficar felizes. | Upon finding the answer, they are going to be happy. |
| Pers. Infinitive | 4b. Ao acharem a resposta, eles vão ficar contentes | Upon their finding the answer, they are going to be happy. |
Practice Reading Sample Sentences