Phrase · 📖 Telling a story
Pra encurtar a história, a gente acabou dormindo no carro.
Long story short, we ended up sleeping in the car.
B1summing up a storyinformalpt-BR-spAudio · coming soon
Why every word is where it is
Pra1prepositiontoparaencurtar1verbshorteninfinitiveadeterminertheo · fem. · sing. · definitehistórianounstoryfem. · sing.,a gentepronounwe3rd sing. · subjectacabou2verbended upacabar · past · 3rd sing.dormindo2verbsleepingdormir · gerundnoprepositionin theem · masc. · sing. · definitecarronouncarmasc. · sing..
- Pra → encurtar: governs
- a gente → acabou: subject
- acabou → dormindo: periphrasis
- no → carro: preposition
Word for word: “To shorten the story, the people ended sleeping in-the car.”
Why it's built this way
The notes match the numbers above.
- 1Pra encurtar a história = to cut a long story short. Resumindo works too.
- 2acabar + gerund = to end up doing, the same pattern as Spanish. Aspectual periphrases I: começar a, parar de, voltar a… →
Variations
- Resumindo: a gente acabou dormindo no carro.
- Para encurtar a história, acabamos dormindo no carro.
- Resumo da ópera: dormimos no carro.