O curso de português é mais difícil do que o de música.

The Portuguese course is more difficult than the music one.

Breakdown of O curso de português é mais difícil do que o de música.

• ser: to be
• o: the
• português: Portuguese
• de: of
• música: music
• curso: course
• do que: than
• mais difícil: more difficult

Questions & Answers about O curso de português é mais difícil do que o de música.

Why is do que used in the sentence instead of just que?

In Portuguese, mais [adjective] do que is the standard structure for comparisons meaning "more [adjective] than." The preposition de combines with o (the masculine article) to form do. So we say mais difícil do que to compare two things.

Why do we say o de música instead of repeating "o curso de música"?

In Portuguese, once the noun (curso) has been mentioned, we can drop it in the second part of the sentence and leave just o de plus the relevant subject. This is a way to avoid repetition. The full expression would be o curso de música, but we shorten it to o de música to make the sentence more concise.

Why is the article o used before curso?

In Portuguese, it's common to use the definite article (o, a, os, as) before nouns. O curso simply means "the course," indicating a specific course. It is different from using indefinite articles (um, uma) or no article at all, which would give a less specific sense.

What's the function of de in "de português" and "de música"?

These phrases indicate the subject or topic of the course. In Portuguese, curso de português literally means "course of Portuguese," which translates to "Portuguese course." Likewise, curso de música is "music course." The preposition de here expresses the notion of "related to."

How do you pronounce the whole sentence?

A rough phonetic breakdown: • O sounds like “oo” (with a short o sound). • curso is like “KOOR-soo.” • de is pronounced like “jee” (in Brazilian Portuguese). • português: “por-too-GAYS.” • é is “eh.” • mais is “myss.” • difícil is “jee-FEE-see-oo” (though the final l is often pronounced like a u sound). • do que is “doo ke.” • o again “oo.” • de música: “jee MOO-zee-ka.”

Putting it all together: “O KOOR-soo jee por-too-GAYS eh myss jee-FEE-see-oo doo ke oo jee MOO-zee-ka.” Remember that the exact pronunciation can vary by region in Brazil.