Breakdown of A árvore grande faz muita sombra no quintal durante a tarde.
Questions & Answers about A árvore grande faz muita sombra no quintal durante a tarde.
In Portuguese, the natural collocation for “to cast a lot of shade” is fazer sombra:
- fazer sombra = to cast shade
- A árvore faz muita sombra. = The tree casts a lot of shade.
You can hear dar sombra in some regions, but fazer sombra is by far the most common and idiomatic choice.
Ter muita sombra usually describes a place, not the object that is creating the shade:
- O quintal tem muita sombra. = The yard has a lot of shade.
(Focus on the yard as a shady place) - A árvore faz muita sombra no quintal. = The tree casts a lot of shade in the yard.
(Focus on the tree as the source of the shade)
So in this sentence, we’re talking about what the tree does (it creates shade), so faz muita sombra is the best choice.
In Portuguese, the default position of descriptive adjectives is after the noun:
- a árvore grande = the big tree
- a casa pequena = the small house
- o carro novo = the new car
Putting the adjective before the noun is also possible, but it usually adds some nuance, such as subjectivity, emotion, emphasis, or a more literary style. For example:
- a grande árvore can sound more expressive or poetic, like “the great/big majestic tree”, not just any big tree.
So:
- a árvore grande = neutral description: the tree is big.
- a grande árvore = more emotional/emphatic: the great or impressive tree.
In everyday speech, for a simple, neutral description, learners should usually put the adjective after the noun: árvore grande.
In Portuguese, every noun has a grammatical gender: masculine or feminine, and it’s often arbitrary. Árvore happens to be feminine, so you must use feminine articles and adjectives:
- a árvore (the tree)
- uma árvore (a tree)
- a árvore grande (the big tree)
- as árvores grandes (the big trees)
There’s no logical reason related to the actual object being male or female; it’s just part of the word’s dictionary identity:
- árvore → feminine noun → a, uma, grande (fem.) etc.
Learners simply have to memorize the gender for each noun.
The verb fazer is conjugated according to the subject, which here is a árvore grande:
- Subject: a árvore grande → 3rd person singular (she/it)
- Verb: fazer in the present: ele/ela faz
So:
- A árvore grande faz muita sombra.
(The big tree casts a lot of shade.)
You would use fazem (3rd person plural) only if the subject were plural:
- As árvores grandes fazem muita sombra.
(The big trees cast a lot of shade.)
Even though sombra might sound plural-ish in English (“a lot of shade”), in Portuguese it is singular, and it’s not the subject; it’s the direct object of fazer. The subject is only a árvore grande.
In Portuguese, muito/muita/muitos/muitas must agree in gender and number with the noun that follows:
- Masculine singular: muito calor (a lot of heat)
- Feminine singular: muita água (a lot of water)
- Masculine plural: muitos livros (many books)
- Feminine plural: muitas casas (many houses)
Since sombra is:
- Feminine
- Singular
the correct form is:
- muita sombra = a lot of shade
You don’t say muito sombra because muito would be masculine, and sombra is feminine.
You don’t say muita sombras either—sombra here is uncountable (like “water,” “air,” “shade”), so it naturally stays in the singular.
In this sentence, sombra is used as an uncountable noun, similar to English “shade”. Uncountable nouns typically stay singular:
- muita sombra = a lot of shade
- pouca sombra = little shade
Portuguese does have a plural form sombras, but that changes the meaning to “shadows” in many contexts (separate, individual dark shapes):
- Vi sombras estranhas na parede.
I saw strange shadows on the wall.
For shade cast by a tree, the natural form is sombra singular, treated as an uncountable mass noun. So muita sombra is the idiomatic expression.
Quintal in Brazilian Portuguese usually means a yard/backyard—an outdoor area of a house, often with plants, trees, sometimes a garden, sometimes just open space, concrete, or dirt.
- no quintal = in the yard / in the backyard
Jardim, on the other hand, more specifically means a garden (an area with flowers, decorative plants, etc.) or a public garden/park area:
- um jardim bonito = a beautiful garden
- no jardim da frente = in the front garden (front yard with plants/flowers)
In many Brazilian houses, the quintal may include a jardim, but they’re not identical concepts. Here, no quintal focuses on the yard area of the house where the tree is casting shade.
No is the contraction of the preposition em + the definite article o:
- em + o = no
- em + a = na
- em + os = nos
- em + as = nas
So:
- em o quintal → no quintal (correct, natural form)
You normally need the preposition em (“in/on/at”) to express the location, and the article o because you’re talking about a specific yard (the yard of this house):
- no quintal = em + o quintal = in the yard
Just saying quintal alone would be incomplete and unnatural here, because you’d be missing both the preposition and the article.
All of these are possible in Brazilian Portuguese, with slightly different styles:
durante a tarde
- Literally: “during the afternoon”
- Slightly more explicit and neutral; works in both spoken and written language.
à tarde
- Very common and natural, especially in speech and writing.
- Often used like “in the afternoon”:
- A árvore grande faz muita sombra no quintal à tarde.
de tarde
- Also common, especially in informal spoken Brazilian Portuguese.
- Similar meaning to à tarde, a bit more colloquial.
So you could say:
- A árvore grande faz muita sombra no quintal durante a tarde.
- A árvore grande faz muita sombra no quintal à tarde.
- A árvore grande faz muita sombra no quintal de tarde.
All are understandable and natural. The original durante a tarde just makes the idea of “during that period” a bit more explicit.
In this context, you do need the article. A bare noun like árvore grande faz muita sombra… sounds wrong/unnatural in Portuguese.
With a specific tree in mind (like in your yard), you use the definite article:
- A árvore grande faz muita sombra no quintal.
= The big tree casts a lot of shade in the yard.
If you wanted to talk about any big tree (not a specific one), you would normally use the indefinite article:
- Uma árvore grande faz muita sombra.
= A big tree casts a lot of shade.
Portuguese strongly prefers nouns to appear with articles in sentences like this, especially when the noun is the subject.