Telling data from interpretation in Portuguese debates

Level B2

Telling data from interpretation in Portuguese debates

In a debate, a figure, the conclusion drawn from it and the assumption behind that conclusion can all sound like plain facts. Here a merchant and a resident argue about a bike lane on a busy avenue, with a short news item as their source. By the end, you can use segundo…, isso sugere… and não demonstra que… to say where a claim comes from and how far it goes, whether or not you agree with it.

Three tools you already know

Three things from earlier lessons come back here. News reports often put the event first with foi and a participle: “Foi anunciado que a energia volta às dez.” Por um lado and por outro lado weigh two sides of a question. É provável que, followed by seja or tenha, says how sure you are: “É provável que a causa seja um raio.”

This lesson adds another question: not how sure you are, but what kind of statement you are hearing.

Words for the topic

The source: a short news item

Read these five sentences like a local news report. A avenida is the avenue, a prefeitura is city hall, afastar clientes means to drive customers away, and afirma means claims. Hoje means now or today, and o dobro de means twice as many.

Don't take sides yet: just work out who says what. The first sentence reports an event, the next three give figures from a named source, and the last gives the association's explanation.

Model: the argument over the avenue

A merchant (a) and a resident (b) argue over the news item. Aceitar means to accept, and a bairro is a neighborhood. Both say o cliente and vaga in the singular to mean customers and parking spaces in general, which is common in Brazilian conversation; that is why the merchant can answer “E não chega?” Listen for the moment the resident accepts a figure but not the conclusion drawn from it.

Words for taking a claim apart

Data, interpretation, assumption

The first three sentences here look alike, but they do different jobs. A dado is something measured or counted, so it can be checked: “As vendas da avenida caíram dez por cento.” An interpretação is what someone concludes from it: “A ciclovia afastou clientes.” A pressuposto is what that conclusion takes for granted, often without saying so: “O cliente da avenida chega de carro.”

Grammar doesn't show the difference, so careful speakers mark it: segundo… names the source, isso sugere… offers an interpretation, and não demonstra que… marks its limit. If someone presents a conclusion as a fact, you can answer: “Isso é uma interpretação, não um dado.”

Say where it comes from: segundo

Segundo means “according to.” Put the source after it, then a comma and the information. It names the source without saying that you agree, and it works with institutions, documents and people: segundo a prefeitura, segundo o jornal, segundo ela. For your own view, say na minha opinião instead. This isn't the segundo of segundo lugar (second place) or um segundo (a second): here, a source follows it.

Naming a source doesn't turn an opinion into data: “Segundo ela, a ciclovia afastou clientes” is still an interpretation, now with its owner named.

Segundo fonte, informação.

Offer an interpretation: isso sugere que

Like English “suggest,” sugerir here means that a fact points toward a conclusion without settling it. Isso picks up what was just said; you can also name it, as in esse dado or esses números. Use sugere with a singular subject and sugerem with a plural one; atrair means to attract. In this use, the verb after que normally stays in the indicative: “Isso sugere que a ciclovia afastou clientes.”

Isso / Esses números sugere / sugerem que frase.

Mark the limit: não demonstra que

Não demonstra que accepts the fact but refuses the jump to the conclusion. It doesn't say that the conclusion is false, only that this evidence isn't enough; “Sugere, mas não demonstra” puts it in four words. With a plural subject, say não demonstram; trânsito is traffic and melhorou means improved. After it, both moods are correct, so you can say “não demonstra que a ciclovia é a causa” or “não demonstra que a ciclovia seja a causa.” The subjunctive underlines the doubt and is common in careful writing; the indicative is more usual in conversation, where you will also hear não prova que.

Isso / Esses números não demonstra / demonstram que frase.

Sugerir or demonstrar?

The choice depends on how far the evidence goes: sales fell after the bike lane came in, but something else could explain that, so sugere is the honest verb. If the merchants counted the spaces before and after, the count settles that narrower point, so demonstra fits: “Isso demonstra que a rua tem menos vagas.”

Both verbs have other uses. Demonstrar can also mean showing how something works, as in a product demonstration. And when someone proposes an action, sugerir takes the subjunctive: “Sugiro que a prefeitura espere.” That is advice, not an interpretation, and it uses the first-person form sugiro, with an i.

Name the assumption: o pressuposto é que

To bring an unspoken assumption into the open, say o pressuposto é que and state it as a plain sentence; traz means brings. It helps to ask what would have to be true for the conclusion to hold. A pressuposto isn't necessarily false: it just hasn't been checked, which is why the debate ends on “Esse dado a gente ainda não tem.”

O pressuposto é que frase.

Report it faithfully, agree or not

Reporting a position isn't adopting it, so you can state it fairly and then disagree in a sentence of your own, as in the first example, where não concordo means I don't agree. Keep to what the source said and how strongly it said it: if it wrote sugere, don't report demonstra. Don't add to it either. In the news item, city hall gave a number of cyclists: “A prefeitura falou de ciclistas, não de trânsito.” Anything about traffic is your idea, not theirs.

Your turn: the same care on the other side

This time the figure favors the bike lane, so test an argument you may like. Read the first sentence, cover the other two, and say the interpretation, its limit and the assumption in your own words. Then compare with the audio: “Isso sugere que a ciclovia atraiu gente nova.”

Next, take a news item you read recently. What is the dado, who gives it, and what does it suggest?

In short

Ask three questions about what you hear: what was measured, what is being concluded, and what is taken for granted. Use segundo to name the source, isso sugere que to offer an interpretation, não demonstra que to mark its limit and o pressuposto é que to name an assumption: “Segundo a associação de comerciantes, as vendas da avenida caíram dez por cento.” Sugerir leaves the question open, and demonstrar closes it. You can report a position faithfully without agreeing with it.

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