Você deve tocar melhor essa música.

You must play this music better.

Breakdown of Você deve tocar melhor essa música.

• você: you
• dever: must
• a música: the music
• tocar: to play
• melhor: better
• essa: this

Questions & Answers about Você deve tocar melhor essa música.

Why does the sentence use deve instead of precisa or tem que?

All three expressions (deve, precisa, tem que) can express a sense of need or obligation in Portuguese. However, deve carries a slightly more formal or polite tone, often implying should rather than a strict must. Precisa or tem que can sound stronger, more like an absolute necessity.

Why use melhor instead of something like mais bem?

In Portuguese, melhor often functions as both an adjective (better) and an adverb (in a better way). Even though mais bem can sometimes be used, melhor is more natural in most cases to express performing an action more skillfully or in a better way.

What does essa specifically refer to, and how is it different from esta or aquela?

Essa is typically used to refer to something that is not immediately next to the speaker, but is relatively close in context or proximity (often in relation to the person spoken to), while esta refers to something very close to the speaker, and aquela refers to something more distant. In everyday speech, essa is often used for something you’ve already mentioned or something that's close (either physically or contextually) to the other person.

Why do you say Você deve... and not Tu deves... in Brazilian Portuguese?

In most parts of Brazil, the form você is more common for addressing someone informally or neutrally. Tu is still used in some regions (especially in the South and parts of the Northeast), but in a lot of Brazilian Portuguese contexts, você is the default second-person singular form.

Can você deve tocar melhor essa música be rearranged in word order without changing the meaning?

Yes, but typically you want to keep key elements in a natural order. You could say Você deve tocar essa música melhor. Both versions convey the same idea, although the first emphasizes playing better, while the second slightly emphasizes the song itself before adding better.