As crianças crescem rapidamente.

Children grow quickly.

Breakdown of As crianças crescem rapidamente.

• a criança: the child
• rapidamente: quickly
• crescer: to grow

Questions & Answers about As crianças crescem rapidamente.

Why do we put the article As before crianças when in English we usually say “Children grow quickly” without “the”?

Portuguese typically uses the definite article with nouns to express general truths or generic statements. So we say As crianças crescem rapidamente. In informal speech you might hear Crianças crescem rapidamente, but the standard pattern includes as.

Why is crianças feminine plural, and can it refer to both boys and girls?

Criança is a feminine noun (ends in -a), and its plural adds -s: crianças. Even though it’s grammatically feminine, it refers to all children regardless of gender. If you need to specify gender, you’d use words like meninos (boys) or meninas (girls).

How is crescem formed, and why do we use this form?

Crescer means “to grow.” Crescem is the 3rd-person plural present indicative, agreeing with as crianças. Conjugation of a regular -er verb:
 • eu cresço
 • tu cresces
 • ele/ela cresce
 • nós crescemos
 • vós cresceis
 • eles/elas crescem

Why is the adverb rapidamente used instead of rápido?