Participants
Who or what is involved?
Significado
Participants are the people and things involved in what we say, including animals, places, and ideas. They may act, have something happen to them, or simply be described. Languages name them with nouns or pronouns, but some do not require a separate word for every participant. Unlike Doer or cause, this block includes everyone and everything involved, not just what makes an event happen.
Como identificar
Look for who or what is named, referred to by a pronoun, or understood from the situation.
Na tua língua materna
Portuguese names participants with nouns and pronouns, such as ela and a gente. Articles often accompany nouns; an article before a person's name is common in many Brazilian regions but varies by region and speaker. A subject can remain unspoken when its identity is clear, although Brazilian conversation often uses an explicit pronoun.
A Camila e o irmão dela chegaram cedo.
A gente almoça aqui aos domingos.
A gente is a common conversational way to say we, but takes a singular verb.
Chegamos antes do almoço.
The verb form identifies the participants as we without a separate subject pronoun.
Na tua língua de aprendizagem
English usually names a participant with a noun, a name, or a pronoun such as she. A noun can have other words with it, as in my old bike; together these words form a noun phrase. When a participant is the subject, English normally expresses it even when the listener knows who is meant.
My new neighbor works at the library.
Several words together name one participant.
She has a small dog.
She refers to a person already identified.
Your plan sounds good.
An idea can be a participant too.
Learners whose language allows understood subjects to stay unspoken may leave out words such as I or she in complete statements. Learners whose language uses singular nouns without articles more freely may omit a/an where English needs it.