Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Brazil): É importante que você faça exercício para cuidar da saúde. - It is important that you exercise to take care of your health.

The structure É importante que… normally requires the present subjunctive in the clause that follows.
Fazer in the present subjunctive is:
- eu faça
- tu faças
- ele/ela/você faça
- nós façamos
- eles/elas/vocês façam

So after É importante que você…, the correct form is faça, not faz.
Saying É importante que você faz exercício sounds wrong to native speakers.

Do we really need the que? Could we say É importante você fazer exercício?

You’ll hear both patterns in Brazilian Portuguese, but they’re slightly different:

É importante que você faça exercício.
- Uses que + subjunctive.
- More formal/neutral; very common in writing and careful speech.
É importante você fazer exercício.
- Uses você + infinitive (fazer).
- Very common in everyday spoken Brazilian Portuguese.
- Slightly more informal and direct.

Grammatically, both are fine in Brazil. The que + subjunctive version is the more “textbook” structure, especially in writing.

Why is it faça exercício (singular) and not faça exercícios (plural)?

Both are possible:

fazer exercício (singular)
- Very common idiomatic expression.
- Means “to exercise” in general, not literally just one exercise.
fazer exercícios (plural)
- Emphasizes doing physical exercises (often several, or a routine).
- Also completely natural.

In practice, in this sentence faça exercício ≈ faça exercícios.
It’s similar to English “do exercise” vs “do exercises”; in most contexts, the meaning is the same.

Are there other common ways to say “to exercise” in Brazilian Portuguese?

Yes, very common alternatives include:

se exercitar
- É importante que você se exercite.
fazer atividade física
- É importante que você faça atividade física.
praticar exercícios físicos
- More formal: É importante que você pratique exercícios físicos.

Fazer exercício is probably the most colloquial and frequent, but all of these are natural.

Why is it cuidar da saúde and not cuidar a saúde?

Because the verb cuidar in Portuguese normally takes the preposition de:

cuidar de alguém – to take care of someone
cuidar de algo – to take care of something

Here the object is a saúde (the health), which is feminine:

cuidar de + a saúde → cuidar da saúde

So:

✅ cuidar da saúde (correct)
❌ cuidar a saúde (incorrect with this meaning)

What exactly is the da in da saúde?

Da is a contraction:

de (preposition) + a (feminine singular definite article) → da

So:

cuidar de a saúde → cuidar da saúde

You’ll see similar contractions:

do = de + o (masculine singular)
dos = de + os (masculine plural)
das = de + as (feminine plural)

Could I say cuidar de saúde without the article?

In this sentence, no — that would sound unnatural.

With things like saúde, coração, cabelo, etc., Portuguese usually uses the definite article where English often doesn’t:

cuidar da saúde – take care of (one’s) health
cuidar do coração – take care of your heart
lavar as mãos – wash your hands

You might sometimes see cuidar de saúde in very specific, technical, or elliptical contexts, but for everyday speech, cuidar da saúde is the natural choice.

Can I say cuidar da sua saúde instead of cuidar da saúde?

Yes:

cuidar da saúde – usually understood as “take care of (your) health” from context.
cuidar da sua saúde – makes the possessor explicit (your health).

Both are correct. In this sentence, da saúde already sounds naturally like “your health” because we’re talking to você, so the possessive sua is optional.

Why is it para cuidar da saúde and not por cuidar da saúde?

Because para here expresses purpose (“in order to”):

para cuidar da saúde – in order to take care of (your) health

Por usually expresses reason/cause, means, or duration, not purpose.
If you said:

por cuidar da saúde – because you take care of your health / for taking care of your health

that would change the meaning of the sentence completely. So for “in order to,” you want para.

Can I omit você and say É importante que faça exercício…?

Yes, grammatically you can:

É importante que faça exercício para cuidar da saúde.

But:

Without você, it can sound less direct and a bit more formal or vague, like “It’s important that one exercise…”
In Brazilian Portuguese, subject pronouns (like você) are used more often than in European Portuguese, especially in speech.

So the original É importante que você faça… is the most natural for directly addressing someone.

Is there any difference between saúde and a saúde in meaning?

Context matters, but in this sentence:

a saúde (inside da saúde) refers to health in a general-but-definite sense, usually your health here.
Plain saúde (without article) is often used:
- as an abstract concept: Saúde é importante. – “Health is important.”
- as a toast: Saúde! – “Cheers!”

In expressions like cuidar da saúde, the article is part of the normal idiomatic pattern, so da saúde is the natural form.