O jantar está delicioso.

Breakdown of O jantar está delicioso.

estar
to be
o jantar
the dinner
delicioso
delicious
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Questions & Answers about O jantar está delicioso.

Why do we use está instead of é in O jantar está delicioso?
In Portuguese, está (from the verb estar) often indicates a temporary or changeable condition. When you say O jantar está delicioso, you’re describing how this particular meal tastes right now. Using é (from the verb ser) would mean that dinner is always delicious in a more permanent sense, which doesn’t quite fit what we want to convey in this moment.
Why is jantar masculine, and does delicioso change if the noun is feminine?
Nouns in Portuguese all have a grammatical gender. The word jantar (meaning “dinner”) is masculine by convention. Since delicioso is an adjective describing a masculine noun, it stays in the masculine form. If you were describing a feminine noun, for example a comida (the food), you’d say a comida está deliciosa.
What if I want to say The dinner is always delicious?
In that case, you can use the verb ser to convey a more permanent or habitual idea. You’d say O jantar é sempre delicioso, showing that it’s consistently delicious every day or every time.
Can I omit the article o and just say Jantar está delicioso?
In Portuguese, it sounds more natural to include the definite article with nouns, so O jantar está delicioso is the typical way to say it. While you might sometimes see the article omitted in casual speech or headlines, usually you keep the article when speaking about a specific meal.
Is there any difference between está delicioso and está muito bom?
Both express that the dinner is good, but delicioso is a stronger adjective meaning “delicious,” while muito bom simply means “really good” or “very good.” Depending on how enthusiastic you want to sound, you can use either.

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