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Questions & Answers about Este café está fraco.
Why is the sentence using este instead of esse or aquele?
Portuguese demonstratives convey proximity. Este refers to something close to the speaker (e.g. the coffee in your hand). Esse points to something near the listener or just mentioned. Aquele indicates something farther from both. Here, you’re talking about the coffee you’re holding or tasting right now, so este is the best choice.
What’s the difference between está and é? Could I say Este café é fraco?
Estar (está) describes a temporary state or condition. Este café está fraco means “this coffee tastes weak (right now).” Ser (é) expresses inherent or permanent characteristics. Este café é fraco would imply that the coffee is always weak by nature, which is odd—coffee strength usually varies with preparation.
Why is the adjective fraco in its masculine singular form?
Adjectives in Portuguese agree in gender and number with the noun they modify. Café is a masculine singular noun, so the adjective must be fraco (masculine singular). For a feminine noun like a água, you’d say a água está fraca.
Why does fraco come after está? In English we say “weak coffee” but here it’s “coffee is weak.”
When an adjective functions as a predicate with estar, it follows the verb: o café está fraco. If you use the adjective attributively (directly before or after the noun), you’d say café fraco (“weak coffee”), but the meaning shifts slightly to describe a type of coffee rather than its current state.
Can I say esse café está fraco or aquele café está fraco?
Yes. Esse suggests the coffee is nearer the listener or just mentioned. Aquele implies it’s more distant in space or time. The basic meaning (“the coffee tastes weak”) remains, only the sense of proximity changes.
Could I omit este and just say O café está fraco?
Absolutely. If context already identifies which coffee you mean, O café está fraco (“The coffee is weak”) is perfectly natural and common.
How do I pronounce café and fraco, especially the accents and vowel sounds?
Café is stressed on the second syllable: ca-FÉ, with é like [ɛ] (open “eh”). Fraco is stressed on the first syllable: FRA-co, with “a” as [a] (like “ah”) and “o” as [o] (like “oh”).
If I want to say “this coffee is strong,” how do I change the sentence?
Replace fraco with forte (the adjective for “strong”): Este café está forte. Forte doesn’t change for gender in the singular.