Breakdown of O doutor disse que a saúde dele está melhor agora.
Questions & Answers about O doutor disse que a saúde dele está melhor agora.
In this sentence:
- O doutor = the doctor
- o médico also = the doctor
Meaning difference:
- médico is the neutral, precise word for a medical doctor.
- doutor in Brazilian Portuguese is often used as a polite title for doctors (and sometimes for lawyers or people with higher education), especially in spoken language:
- O doutor disse…
- O médico disse…
Both are correct here and usually mean the same thing in context. O médico sounds a bit more neutral/formal; o doutor can sound more colloquial or respectful, depending on the region.
About the article o:
- With professions used as a specific person, you normally use the definite article:
- O doutor chegou. = The doctor arrived.
- O médico falou comigo. = The doctor spoke to me.
Using just Doutor without the article is usually for direct address:
- Doutor, posso entrar? = Doctor, may I come in?
In Portuguese, when you report speech with a full clause, you almost always need the conjunction que:
- O doutor disse que a saúde dele está melhor agora.
= The doctor said (that) his health is better now.
Unlike English, where that can be dropped, in Portuguese:
- ✗ O doutor disse a saúde dele está melhor agora
sounds wrong or at least very unnatural in standard Brazilian Portuguese.
So you should keep que after verbs like dizer, achar, pensar, saber, etc., when they introduce a clause:
- Ela acha que ele está doente.
- Eles disseram que vai chover.
Here a saúde dele = his health, and the article a is used because:
- It’s a specific, identifiable health (his), not health in general.
- saúde is a feminine noun, so it takes the feminine article a.
Compare:
- Saúde é importante. = Health is important. (general idea, no article)
- A saúde dele está melhor. = His health is better. (specific person)
So:
- General statements about health often use saúde without the article.
- When you’re talking about someone’s specific health, a saúde dele/dela is very common and natural.
Both are grammatically possible, but they behave differently:
- a saúde dele = his health (clearly refers to him, a previously mentioned male person)
- a sua saúde = your health or his/her health, depending on context
In Brazilian Portuguese:
dele / dela / deles / delas are used after a noun to express possession and avoid ambiguity:
- a saúde dele = his health
- a saúde dela = her health
seu / sua / seus / suas agree with the possessed noun, not with the possessor:
- sua saúde = his/her/your health (we don’t know whose, from the word alone)
Because seu/sua can be ambiguous, Brazilians often prefer dele/dela if there’s any chance of confusion.
So:
- O doutor disse que a saúde dele está melhor agora.
sounds very clear: the health of that man is better now. - O doutor disse que sua saúde está melhor agora.
could mean your health (speaking to the patient) or his health, depending on the situation.
No. Possessive forms like dele/dela/deles/delas normally come after the noun they belong to:
- a casa dele = his house
- o carro dela = her car
- a saúde deles = their health
So we say:
- a saúde dele
not - ✗ dele a saúde
The order dele a saúde is ungrammatical in standard Portuguese in this kind of structure.
Portuguese handles reported speech differently from English.
In English, it’s common to “backshift” the tense:
- He said his health *was better.*
In Portuguese, you usually keep the tense that matches the time of the situation, not the time of speaking:
- O doutor disse que a saúde dele está melhor agora.
= The doctor said: “His health is better now.”
We use está (present) because his health is better at the present time (the time the doctor is referring to, which still includes “agora”).
If you wanted to refer to a past moment that is no longer valid, you could say:
- O doutor disse que a saúde dele estava melhor naquela época.
= The doctor said that his health was better at that time.
In Portuguese:
- estar is generally for temporary states or conditions.
- ser is more for permanent characteristics, identity, definitions.
Health is seen as a changeable condition, so:
- A saúde dele está melhor.
= His health is better (now, compared to before – a condition that can change).
Using é melhor would usually compare types of things or people in a more permanent way:
- Este remédio é melhor. = This medicine is better.
- Ele é melhor jogador que o irmão. = He is a better player than his brother.
So for someone’s state of health improving, estar is the natural choice.
Yes, you could say:
- O doutor disse que ele está melhor agora.
= The doctor said that he is better now.
Differences:
- ele está melhor agora focuses on him as a whole (he feels better, seems better).
- a saúde dele está melhor agora focuses specifically on his health (test results, medical condition, etc.).
In many everyday contexts, they will feel almost the same, and both are common. The original sentence just makes the subject (a saúde) explicit.
Yes, agora is flexible in position, and the meaning stays essentially the same. Some options:
- O doutor disse que a saúde dele está melhor agora.
- O doutor disse que agora a saúde dele está melhor.
- O doutor disse que a saúde dele agora está melhor.
Nuance:
- At the very end (…está melhor agora) is probably the most neutral and common.
- Putting agora earlier (que agora a saúde dele está melhor) can slightly emphasize the time contrast (before vs. now), but it’s still very natural.
- a saúde dele agora está melhor is also fine, just a different rhythm.
Grammatically, all are correct in Brazilian Portuguese.
melhor already means better. Just like in English you don’t say “more better”, in Portuguese you don’t say mais melhor.
- bom = good
- melhor = better
- mais bom = (usually incorrect or very marked)
- mais melhor = incorrect in standard Portuguese
So for health improving:
- A saúde dele está melhor agora. = His health is better now.
You only use mais with regular adjectives:
- rápido → mais rápido = faster
- interessante → mais interessante = more interesting
But bom → melhor, ruim → pior are irregular, just like good → better, bad → worse in English.
Yes, in context this can be perfectly natural:
- O doutor disse que a saúde está melhor agora.
= The doctor said that the health is better now.
This works well when everyone already knows whose health you’re talking about (for example, you’re at the hospital with one specific patient).
Differences:
- With dele:
- a saúde dele = explicitly his health (clear even without context).
- Without dele:
- a saúde = the health (understood from context; usually the patient’s health).
In conversation, if it’s obvious, people often drop dele to avoid repetition.