Ela mora em uma cidade distante.

She lives in a distant city.

Breakdown of Ela mora em uma cidade distante.

• uma: a
• a cidade: the city
• morar: to live
• em: in
• distante: distant
• ela: she

Questions & Answers about Ela mora em uma cidade distante.

Why is em uma used instead of na?

Na is a contraction of em + a (meaning in the), while em uma is in a. Since the sentence refers to a city that hasn't been mentioned before (thus indefinite), em uma is used to indicate in a certain (unspecified) city rather than in the city.

Why use the verb morar instead of viver?

Although both can mean to live, morar specifically emphasizes residing somewhere. Viver often conveys the broader sense of being alive or leading a life. In this context, morar makes it clear that she resides in a distant city.

Why place the adjective distante after the noun?

In Portuguese, adjectives commonly come after the noun. While there are exceptions, the standard written form places descriptive adjectives like distante (distant) at the end, leading to cidade distante instead of distante cidade.

What is the nuance of calling the city distante instead of longe?

Distante is an adjective describing the city as distant or far-off. It suggests the city is located away from other places or perhaps isolated. Longe is typically used as an adverb (e.g., Ela mora longe), meaning far or a long way, which is more general and doesn’t modify a noun directly.

Is mora a regular verb form?

Yes. Morar is a regular -ar verb. The present-tense conjugation for ele/ela (third-person singular) is mora. You would see the same pattern for other regular -ar verbs, like falar (ele/ela fala) or estudar (ele/ela estuda).