Ontem eu comprei um presente para minha filha.

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Breakdown of Ontem eu comprei um presente para minha filha.

• um: a
• comprar: to buy
• minha: my
• para: for
• ontem: yesterday
• o presente: the gift
• a filha: the daughter

Questions & Answers about Ontem eu comprei um presente para minha filha.

Why is Ontem at the beginning of the sentence, and is it mandatory?

Placing Ontem (meaning yesterday) at the start of the sentence is a common way to emphasize the time frame. It’s not mandatory; you could say Eu comprei um presente para minha filha ontem. However, putting Ontem at the beginning clearly sets the context right away.

Why do we use comprei instead of something like comprou?

Comprei is the first-person singular past tense (preterite) form of comprar: eu comprei (I bought). Comprou would be the third-person singular (he/she/you bought).

Is there any difference between using para and pra?

Pra is a more colloquial or informal contraction often used in spoken Brazilian Portuguese. Para is more formal and is used in writing or more formal contexts. They both mean for.

Why is minha used instead of meu before filha?

In Portuguese, possessive adjectives agree with the gender (and number) of the noun. Since filha (daughter) is feminine, we use the feminine form minha. If it were filho (son), you would say meu filho.

Do we always need an article before presente, like um presente?

Generally, when you’re talking about a gift, it’s natural to use the indefinite article um. If you said comprei presente, it would sound incomplete or too generic. Using um presente is the standard way to mean a gift in most contexts.