Category: English

More jottings from Ciberdúvidas, this time relating to the difference between “se não” and “senão”.

Senão (just one word) can be:

1. A noun meaning “drawback” or “defect” – the example given in the article, “Não há bela sem senão” menas “there’s no beauty without a drawback” or if you’re feeling poetic, “every rose has it’s thorn”
2. As a linking element meaning one of several things in english, which all have the common theme of expressing an alternative case:
   • • “or else” – Fala mais alto senão não te oiço means “Speak up, or else I won’t hear you”
     • “but (on the contrary)” – Não dá quem tem, senão quem quer bem means “It isn’t those who have that give but to those who really want to”
     • “if not” – O que é a vida senão uma luta? means “What is life if not a struggle? [NB – it only means “if not” in this kind of context though – where it’s essentially doing the same job as “except” – contrast with the meaning of “se não” below]
     • “except” Ninguém falou senão o meu irmão means “Nobody spoke except my brother
3. Paired with another “nao”, this alternative case can morph into “only” or “nothing but”. For example Ele não tinha senão uma atitude a tomar: proteger a mãe.” means “He has nothing but this one attitude: to protect his mother”
4. Paired with “Quando” it means “suddenly”. Eu estava quase na escola senão quando um carro atropelou um aluno means “I was almost at school when suddenly a car knocked over a student

Se Não (two words) is a lot less awkward. It means what it looks like it means: “If not” in most contexts we would normally use them. For example the Primo Levi book called “If Not Now, When” in english is called “Se Não Agora, Quando?” in Portuguese.

Some more examples:

1. Se não fosse um homem, gostaria de ser um sapo” – If I weren’t a man, I’d like to be a frog”
2. “Tenho cem livros de PG Wodehouse se não mais.” I have a hundred books by PG Wodehouse, if not more

This second one is the sort of situation I would make a mistake in since it looks like one of the examples for senão, but it’s subtly different.

The article gives this helpful tip: Uma regra simples para se verificar esta situação: neste caso é possível introduzir a expressão “é que” entre o “se” e o “não”. So…

• Tenho sem livros de PG Wodehouse se é que não tinha mais.

According to the rule, that should break in cases where we would want to use senão:

• Fala mais alto se é que não [???] não te oiço
• Não dá quem tem, se é que não [dá] quem quer bem
• O que é a vida se é que não é uma luta?

Hm… I’m not sure. The first and second are definitely wrong, but the third means. “What is life if it is not a struggle”. Has that broken the sentence…? Not completely. It’s subtly different, but… Bit shady, that one.

“Se não” occasionally comes up in an even more separate way where you have a negative statement with a reflexive, passive or pronomial verb (cf this post)

• Quem se não sente de agravos, não é honrado.

Here the verb is “sentir-se” but the se has gone ahead of everything else. Seems like a tedious and annoying way of writing a sentence to me, but hi ho.

I sometimes get confused between “pelo menos” and “ao menos” so here are some jottings about different expressions with preposition+menos. They can just occur randomly. For example “A simplificação traduzir-se-á, no entanto, por menos exigências administrativas” just means it’ll result in fewer administrative overheads, but this is about where they’re used together with more co-ordination. The bulk of it comes from Ciberdúvidas and from Gramática Aplicada Níveis B2, C1.

Pelo menos

Pelo menos means “at least” and can be used anywhere you’d use “at least” in english including seemingly idiomatic things like “At least tell me your name, even if you won’t tell me anything else”

Ao menos

Is essentially the same as pelo menios but with the important difference that you can’t use it for quantity – so if you’re saying “I need at least ten chickens” it’s “preciso de pelo menos dez frangos” and not “ao menos”.

A menos que

This means “unless” and since it introduces something that only might happen, it needs a subjunctive:

“Eu estarei lá a menos que chuva” (“I’ll be there unless it rains”)

Por menos …. que

There’s a set of phrases in Gramática Aplicada that correspond to english phrases like “No matter how much money you have, you can’t buy happines”. There aren’t any examples that use “menos” but on the same principle I assume you can do this sort of thing:

“Por menos roupas que eu use, estou sempre som suor” (“no matter how little I’m wearing, I’m always sweaty”)

Jottings from Ciberdvidas, with some side-notes pulled from other places:

General Meanings of Ainda

Most simply, it’s just “still” e.g. “Ainda estás a adormecer?”

It can mean “one day” as in the example “Tu ainda hás-de ser muito feliz” (“you’ll be happy one day”)

It can be a reinforcer – like mesmo – but applied to a specific time as in the example “Ainda ontem o vi” (“I saw him only yesterday”)

It can work like “além disso” as in the example “Fui jantar. Comi muito bem e ainda me diverti com a conversa de Miguel” (but cf the note to this text where I used the phrase “ainda por cima” which has more of a sense that the thing being added to the situation is making ot even worse, rather than even better!)

It can mean “at least “Ainda se ele marcasse um golo, o dinheiro era bem gasto, mas assim…”

Interesting that you can imagine english sentences that would meet all these cases and would all use “still”, because it’s one of those words that can be used in places where it doesn’t have a real meaning but subtly tweaks the existing meaning of the sentence.

General Meanings of Já

Under normal circs, it means “already”, but like the use of that word in jewish slang, it can also mean “right now”. “Vou-me já embora” means “I’m going right now”

Já in questions/answers

If a question contains the word “já” and you want toanswer affirmatively you’d normally use “já”. Otherwise,”Ainda nao”

“Já comeste?” / “Já sim”

“Já leste o artigo?” / “Ainda não”

Ainda in questions/answers

Likewise, if the question contains ainda then the answer would normally contain ainda in the positive and já in the negative

“Ainda estudas português?” / “Sim, ainda estudo”

“Ainda estuda japonês?”/ “já não”

With “que”

“Ainda que” is “Although” and it’s followed by a subjunctive

“Ainda que eu esteja de regime, às vezes como gelado”

Já que is “since ” and doesn’t

“Não tenho tempo para estudar já que comecei o meu novo projecto”

Other Locutions

Ainda bem = “It’s just as well”

Ainda assim = “Even so”

Ainda mais = “Even more”

Desde já = “As of this moment”