A família é pobre.

A is the feminine singular definite article, equivalent to the in English.

So a família means the family.

It is feminine singular because família is a feminine singular noun.

In Portuguese, every noun has a grammatical gender, usually masculine or feminine. Família is a feminine noun, so it normally goes with feminine words like a.

This is grammatical gender, not biological gender. Even though a family includes people of different genders, the noun itself is treated as feminine.

É means is.

It is the third-person singular form of the verb ser, which means to be.

So:

• A família = the family
• é = is
• pobre = poor

The accent is important because it distinguishes é from e.

• é = is
• e = and

The accent also shows the stressed vowel pronunciation.

Portuguese often uses ser for things seen as general, essential, or lasting characteristics.

So A família é pobre means the family is poor in a general sense, especially economically.

If you used estar, it would sound more like a temporary condition or situation, which is less natural in this context.

Some Portuguese adjectives have the same form for masculine and feminine. Pobre is one of them.

So you get:

• o homem pobre = the poor man
• a mulher pobre = the poor woman
• a família pobre = the poor family

But the plural does change:

• pobres = poor, plural

In Brazilian Portuguese, família is approximately pronounced fah-MEE-lya.

A few helpful points:

• The stress is on mí.
• The lh sound is like the lli in million for many English speakers, though not exactly the same.
• The final a is clearly pronounced.

The accent in família shows where the stress goes: fa-MÍ-lia.

Without the accent, the reader would not know the correct stress pattern as easily. Portuguese uses written accents to help mark pronunciation and stress.

Usually in a sentence like A família é pobre, yes, it means financially poor.

But pobre can sometimes also mean something like unfortunate or pitiful, depending on context.

Here, the most natural interpretation is economic poverty.

In normal standard Portuguese, no. You would usually say A família é pobre.

Leaving out the article sounds unnatural in an ordinary sentence, though it might appear in headlines, notes, or very specific styles.

For a basic full sentence, A família é pobre is the correct form.

The plural version would be:

As famílias são pobres.

Changes:

• A → As
• família → famílias
• é → são
• pobre → pobres

So it means The families are poor.