Grammar tips

Today we will dive into some grammar that appeared in this week’s translation exercise. Check out the last sentence of Orwell’s excerpt:

“Could you forget that every mountain-top was occupied by troops and thus littered with tin cans and crusted with dung, the scenery was stupendous.”

This is an example of a 2nd conditional inversion. The original sentence, using the “if”, would be written as:

“If you could forget that every mountain-top was occupied by troops and thus littered with tin cans and crusted with dung, the scenery was stupendous.”

The 2nd conditional is also called the 'Present Conditional', as it contemplates a present moment and a nearly impossible future condition. In other words, it would be nearly impossible for the narrator to “forget” the image of the dirty mountain-top in the middle of a battle scene.

To create the inverted form, remove the “if” and invert the subject (“you”) and the auxiliary verb (“could”).

The inverted form does not change the overall meaning of the text; it only makes it more formal and literary in structure and style. The trick is to understand that, in the translation into Portuguese, this inversion does not exist. You need to think of the sentence in its original “if-clause” form and translate it accordingly.

“Se pudesse esquecer que todos os topos das montanhas eram ocupados por tropas e, portanto, encobertos por latinhas e cobertas por excrementos, o cenário seria estupendo.”

Stay tuned for more of Todd’s grammar tips next week!