Word of the Day

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Dar

It is funny that Portuguese dar, main meaning = to give, can be used in constructions that show something is possible:

Dá para fazer isso em dez minutos. - One can do this within ten minutes. It is possible to do this within ten minutes.

I have never encountered a similar usage in any Romance language, not even in Spanish, the closest language to Portuguese, but oddly enough, at least three Slavic languages can do the same: Polish, Slovak, and Czech, always with a perfective verb and always with a reflexive pronoun.

Polish: Da się to zrobić w dziesięć minut.
Slovak: Dá sa to urobiť za desať minút.
Czech: Dá se to udělat za deset minut.

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