Breakdown of Você gosta de sapato esportivo ou social?
você
you
gostar de
to like
o
the
ou
or
sapato
shoe
esportivo
sports
Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Portuguese grammar and vocabulary.
Questions & Answers about Você gosta de sapato esportivo ou social?
What does Você mean, and why is it used instead of something like tu?
Você means "you" in Portuguese. In Brazil, você is the common and informal form of address, even though some regions use tu. It’s standard for most conversations.
How is gosta functioning in this sentence, and why is it in the singular form?
Gosta is the verb form of gostar (to like) used with você. In Brazilian Portuguese, even though você translates to “you,” it takes the third person singular conjugation, hence gosta.
Why is the preposition de used after gosta?
In Portuguese, the verb gostar always requires the preposition de. This verb-preposition pairing (gostar de) is necessary to express the idea of “liking” something, even if English doesn’t use an equivalent preposition.
What do the adjectives esportivo and social mean in this context, and how do they relate to sapato?
Esportivo describes shoes that are athletic or casual (sporty), while social refers to shoes that are formal or dressy. Both adjectives modify sapato (shoe), and they agree in gender and number with the noun—in this case, masculine singular.
Why is sapato in the singular form rather than plural, even though it refers to a type of shoe?
In Portuguese, the singular form can be used to represent an entire class or category of items. Here, sapato is used generically to indicate the type of shoe (athletic or formal) rather than referring to individual pairs. Though using the plural (sapatos) is also possible, the singular form is common in general preference statements.
What is the function of the conjunction ou in this sentence?
The conjunction ou means "or." It is used here to offer a choice between two alternatives: sapato esportivo (athletic shoes) and sapato social (formal shoes).