MP3 Audio (Lesson) | MP3 Audio (Dialog)
Security, network safety, computer hacking, wifi networks, passwords, where does it stop? Are we being prudently cautious or just paranoid? That is the topic in today’s lesson, and come away with lots of new vocabulary related to high tech as well.
| A: | Quanto tempo você acha que a Marta precisa para hackear uma rede wi-fi? How long to you think that Marta needs to hack into your wifi network? | |
| B: | Ela é muito esperta, não sei, 15 minutos talvez. She is pretty clever, I don’t know, 15 minutes maybe. | |
| A: | Não, ela conseguiu em apenas 8 minutos e meio. No, she could do it in only eight and a half minutes. | |
| B: | Uau, ainda bem que ela trabalha nisso e não tem intenções criminosas. Wow, it’s a good thing that she works in this and doesn’t have criminal intentions. | |
| A: | Pois é, imagina o que esses criminosos fariam. Right, imagine what the criminally minded would do. | |
| B: | Realmente, é preocupante saber que somos tão pouco protegidos. Right, it’s worrisome to know that we are so little protected. |
Great lesson as always. My question is why is the verb precisar is followed by para. I thought if the verb follows precisar it’s not required. Couldn’t you’ve said precisa hackear?
OK, excellent question. Sometimes we find precisar in one phrase, as in “Maria precisa comer” (Maria needs to eat). However sometimes we find precisar when it is really embedded in two phrases, as in “Quanto tempo Maria precisa para comer a comida dela” (How long does Maria need to eat her food).
In this lesson, we find an example of the second type.
You will also notice that in the second example, in English you could add the words “in order to”, (How long does Maria need, in order to eat her food). This is not the case in the first example, where there is only one clause (*Maria needs in order to eat.)
So, don’t use “para” if there is one clause. Use “para” if you are joining two clauses.