Hi all,
I have a question regarding the use of the infinitive in Portuguese. It seems that a combination of ir/vir + a + infinitive would express the start or the beginning or progression of the action dented by the infinitive. However, a + infinitive can also function as a gerund/past participle and express the manner in which an action is performed (I have all of this from grammars, so please tell me if it's not correct!)
Then for a sentence such as this:
saiu d-a casa a correr
'a correr' indicates the manner of the action, right?
But what about this sentence:
que ia a passar.
Either, 'a passar' could indicate the manner in which the subject went, or 'ia' is an auxiliary which means 'started' or 'progressive', so something like 'she started to pass' or 'she was passing'.
What are your intuitions about this and is there some easy way to figure out whether ir is being used as an auxiliary?