Breakdown of O aluno fica quieto durante a aula.
Questions & Answers about O aluno fica quieto durante a aula.
In Portuguese it’s normal to use a definite article (o, a, os, as) before most singular nouns when you speak about a specific person or thing.
- O aluno = “the student.”
- Saying aluno alone sounds generic or literary.
English sometimes drops “the” (e.g. “Student stays quiet”), but in everyday Brazilian Portuguese you’ll almost always hear “o aluno.”
Both verbs can translate as “to be,” but they have different uses:
- estar = to be in a temporary, ongoing state or location.
- ficar = to become, to remain, or to stay in a certain state (often implying a change or a maintained condition).
In O aluno fica quieto, fica suggests “he stays/remains quiet.” If you used está (O aluno está quieto) you’d simply state “the student is quiet” right now, without the nuance of “remaining” or “becoming” quiet.
Quieto is acting as a predicate adjective linked to the verb ficar, not as a descriptive adjective modifying aluno directly. The pattern is:
Subject (O aluno) + Linking verb (fica) + Predicate adjective (quieto).
If you wrote o aluno quieto, that’s a noun + adjective phrase, which would normally need its own verb or connector (e.g. O aluno quieto não atrapalha a aula).
You must match the gender of both the article/noun and the adjective:
- Masculine: O aluno fica quieto durante a aula.
- Feminine: A aluna fica quieta durante a aula.
Notice quieto → quieta and o aluno → a aluna.
- durante is a preposition meaning “throughout” or “during,” and it requires a noun: durante a aula = “during the class.”
- enquanto is a conjunction meaning “while,” and it needs a clause: enquanto o professor explica, o aluno fica quieto = “while the teacher explains, the student stays quiet.”
You could say enquanto a aula dura, o aluno fica quieto, but that’s longer and more formal.
Yes. Na aula literally means “in class” and is very common:
- O aluno fica quieto na aula.
Durante a aula places a bit more emphasis on the entire duration of the class, but in everyday speech both are OK.
- Ficar quieto focuses on not moving or speaking: “stay still/quiet.”
- Ficar em silêncio focuses on making no sound: “stay silent.”
A student can be quieto (sitting peacefully) without total silêncio (there might still be rustling of papers). Conversely, you could be in silêncio but not perfectly still.