Breakdown of No meu bairro, nós temos um pequeno jardim e um grande quintal.
Questions & Answers about No meu bairro, nós temos um pequeno jardim e um grande quintal.
No. In Portuguese, no here is a contraction:
- em + o = no → no bairro = in the neighborhood
So No meu bairro literally means “In my neighborhood” or “In the neighborhood where I live.”
It is not negative at all. The negative “no” in Portuguese is não.
Portuguese possessives agree in gender and number with the noun they describe, not with the person:
- bairro is a masculine noun (o bairro)
- So you use the masculine possessive meu → meu bairro (my neighborhood)
Examples:
- meu carro (my car – masculine)
- minha casa (my house – feminine)
They overlap, but they’re not exactly the same:
bairro
- More official/administrative: a defined area of a city (like a district).
- What you’d see on maps, addresses, city planning.
- Very common in Brazil to say where you live:
- Eu moro no bairro Copacabana.
vizinhança
- More like English “the neighborhood” in the sense of the area around you / your neighbors.
- Often emphasizes the people living around you, the community.
- Example: A vizinhança é tranquila. (The neighborhood / neighbors are calm/quiet.)
In the sentence No meu bairro, bairro is the most natural word.
You can absolutely drop the pronoun:
- No meu bairro, temos um pequeno jardim e um grande quintal.
This is still clear, because the verb form temos already shows the subject is we (1st person plural).
Using nós is optional and often adds a bit of emphasis or clarity. In everyday Brazilian speech, people often prefer a gente tem instead of nós temos:
- No meu bairro, a gente tem um pequeno jardim e um grande quintal.
Portuguese allows adjectives before or after the noun. Both positions are correct, but:
Adjective after the noun (more neutral, descriptive):
- um jardim pequeno = a small garden (just stating the size)
Adjective before the noun can sound:
- a bit more natural or idiomatic with some frequent adjectives (like grande, pequeno, bom, mau, velho, novo)
- sometimes more subjective or emphatic
In your sentence, um pequeno jardim and um grande quintal sound very natural and slightly more fluent/idiomatic than um jardim pequeno / um quintal grande, but both word orders are grammatically correct.
Often yes:
grande + noun (before) can suggest “big, great, important”:
- um grande escritor = a great writer (not just tall)
noun + grande (after) tends to mean physically big/large:
- um escritor grande = a writer who is big/tall (physically)
In um grande quintal, the main idea is that the yard is big, and this word order is very natural.
Um quintal grande is also acceptable, focusing simply on size, with a slightly more neutral feel.
Both can relate to outdoor space, but they’re different:
jardim
- Literally “garden” (flowers, plants, decorative).
- Often more ornamental: flowers, lawn, landscaping.
- Can also be used for public parks: jardim público.
quintal
- More like a yard, especially a backyard.
- Space behind or around the house where people might hang clothes, have a barbecue, store things, keep a dog, etc.
- Not necessarily pretty or full of plants.
So the sentence describes both: a small decorative garden and a large yard/backyard.
Yes, that’s completely correct:
- No meu bairro, nós temos um jardim pequeno e um quintal grande.
This version places the adjectives after the nouns. It sounds slightly more descriptive and neutral.
The original version, um pequeno jardim e um grande quintal, is a bit more natural and fluent in everyday speech, but both are good Portuguese.
No meu bairro is an introductory phrase indicating place (a location context). In both English and Portuguese, it’s very common to separate such an introductory element with a comma:
- No meu bairro, nós temos...
- In my neighborhood, we have...
In informal writing, some people might omit the comma, but using it is standard and clear.
Because um is an indefinite article (a/an), while o is definite (the):
- um = a / one (not specified which)
- o = the (a specific one that the listener already knows)
Here, the speaker is introducing these things as non‑specific items in the neighborhood:
- um pequeno jardim = a small garden (not “the” already-known garden)
- um grande quintal = a big yard
If the listener already knew exactly which garden and yard you meant, you could say:
- No meu bairro, nós temos o pequeno jardim e o grande quintal.
(This would be referring to specific, already-identified places.)
Approximate Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation:
bairro → [ˈbaj.ʁu]
- bai like “bye”
- rr is the guttural h/kh sound (varies by region), like a strong h in the throat
- final -o is like “oo” in “too”, but very short: bai-hroo (short -oo)
quintal → [kĩˈtaw]
- qui = “kee”, but nasal (because of the n before t)
- n here nasalizes the i, you don’t really pronounce a full n
- tal = “taw” with the l almost swallowed (dark L), close to “taw” in many accents
You can think:
- bairro ≈ “BYE-hoo” (with a rough h)
- quintal ≈ “keen-TAW” (nasal “keen”)
No. The negative “no” in Portuguese is não.
- não = no / not
- no = em + o = in the / on the / at the (for masculine singular nouns)
Examples:
- Não, eu não quero. = No, I don’t want to.
- Eu moro no Brasil. = I live in Brazil.
You’d change the preposition + article, the possessive, and possibly the verb if the subject changed. For example:
- Nos meus bairros, nós temos pequenos jardins e grandes quintais.
- nos = em + os (in the – plural masculine)
- meus = my (plural masculine)
- pequenos jardins (plural)
- grandes quintais (plural)
But this is unusual in real life, because people don’t normally talk about “my neighborhoods” in the plural. The original No meu bairro is the natural, everyday form.