Breakdown of A procuração chegou hoje.
Questions & Answers about A procuração chegou hoje.
Why is there a before procuração?
A is the feminine singular definite article, meaning the.
So a procuração = the power of attorney.
Portuguese nouns have grammatical gender, and procuração is feminine, so it takes a, not o.
Why is procuração feminine?
Grammatical gender in Portuguese is a property of the noun, not of the object itself.
Procuração is a feminine noun, which is why you say:
- a procuração
- esta procuração
- a procuração chegou
Many nouns ending in -ção are feminine, so this fits a very common pattern.
What tense is chegou?
Chegou is the simple past of chegar and corresponds to arrived in English.
So:
- A procuração chegou hoje. = The power of attorney arrived today.
This tense is very commonly used in Brazilian Portuguese for completed past actions.
Why is it chegou and not chegou-se or something with a pronoun?
Why doesn’t Portuguese use a subject pronoun here, like it arrived today?
Portuguese often does not need a separate subject pronoun when the subject noun is already stated.
Here, a procuração is the subject, so that is enough:
- A procuração chegou hoje.
Adding a pronoun would be unnecessary.
Can hoje go in a different position?
Yes. Hoje is flexible in Portuguese.
All of these are possible, though they may sound slightly different in emphasis:
- A procuração chegou hoje.
- Hoje a procuração chegou.
- A procuração hoje chegou. (less common in everyday speech)
- Chegou hoje a procuração. (more marked, often stylistic or contextual)
The most neutral everyday version is A procuração chegou hoje.
Is the word order the same as in English?
Mostly yes. This sentence follows a very common Portuguese order:
subject + verb + time expression
- A procuração = subject
- chegou = verb
- hoje = time expression
So structurally it is very similar to The power of attorney arrived today.
How do you pronounce procuração?
In Brazilian Portuguese, it is approximately:
pro-cu-ra-ÇÃO
The last syllable is stressed: -ção.
A rough English-style approximation is proh-koo-rah-SOWN, but that is only approximate.
A few pronunciation notes:
- ç sounds like s
- ão is a nasal sound, very common in Portuguese
- the stress falls on the last syllable because of the ending -ão
What exactly is procuração in Brazilian Portuguese usage?
Could I leave out the article and just say Procuração chegou hoje?
How would this change if more than one document arrived?
You would make both the noun phrase and the verb plural:
- As procurações chegaram hoje.
Changes:
- a → as
- procuração → procurações
- chegou → chegaram
This is standard subject-verb agreement in Portuguese.
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