Log inSign up

Ela sempre leva uma pasta com documentos importantes para a reunião.

Ela sempre leva uma pasta com documentos importantes para a reunião.
She always takes a folder with important documents to the meeting.
Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Portuguese grammar and vocabulary.

Start learning Portuguese now

Questions & Answers about Ela sempre leva uma pasta com documentos importantes para a reunião.

Why is it leva and not traz here? In English we’d usually say “She always brings a folder…”.

Portuguese distinguishes more clearly between levar and trazer than English does:

  • levar = to take something from here to there (away from the current point of reference)
  • trazer = to bring something from there to here (toward the speaker’s point of reference)

In Ela sempre leva uma pasta… para a reunião, the idea is:

  • She is taking the folder from wherever she is to the place where the meeting will happen.

If the sentence were spoken by someone already at the meeting room, imagining her coming toward them, they might use traz:

  • Ela sempre traz uma pasta com documentos importantes para a reunião.
    “She always brings a folder with important documents to the meeting.”

So leva is natural if you imagine the starting point as “here” and the meeting as “there.”

What exactly does pasta mean here? Does it mean “pasta” like the food?

No. In Brazilian Portuguese:

  • pasta (in this sentence) = folder / briefcase / file (for papers or documents)
    • uma pasta com documentos = a folder/briefcase containing documents

For food “pasta” (like Italian pasta), Brazilians normally say massa:

  • massa = pasta (the food), dough, pastry dough

So:

  • pasta de documentos / pasta com documentos = document folder
  • massa = pasta (spaghetti, penne, etc.)
Why do we say uma pasta and not a pasta? What would change if we used a pasta?

Uma pasta = a folder in the sense of “one folder / some folder” (indefinite).

  • Ela sempre leva uma pasta…
    → She always takes a folder (not specified which one; just “a folder” in general).

If you say a pasta:

  • Ela sempre leva a pasta com documentos importantes para a reunião.
    → She always takes the folder with important documents to the meeting.

Now we’re talking about a specific, known folder, probably one that both speaker and listener already know about (e.g., “the blue folder we always use for these meetings”).

So:

  • uma pasta = any folder of that type, not specifically identified
  • a pasta = a particular, identified folder
Why is it documentos importantes and not importantes documentos? Does the word order matter?

In Portuguese, the default order is:

  • noun + adjective
    → documentos importantes = important documents

Putting the adjective before the noun can sound:

  • poetic, literary, or very formal;
  • or can slightly change the nuance (more subjective, evaluative).

So:

  • documentos importantes = neutral, objective “important documents”
  • importantes documentos = unusual in everyday speech here; sounds more literary or emphatic, like “such important documents”.

In normal Brazilian Portuguese, you should generally stick to noun + adjective:

  • documentos importantes, reunião importante, pasta vermelha, etc.
Why is importantes used for documentos, and does it change for feminine nouns?

Documentos is masculine plural:

  • o documento (singular, masculine)
  • os documentos (plural, masculine)

Importantes is an adjective that ends in -e in the singular:

  • importante (singular, masculine or feminine)
  • importantes (plural, masculine or feminine)

So:

  • um documento importante
  • dois documentos importantes
  • uma reunião importante
  • duas reuniões importantes

Adjectives that end in -e usually do not change for gender, only for number:

  • importante / importantes
  • interessante / interessantes, etc.
Why is it com documentos importantes and not de documentos importantes? Could we say uma pasta de documentos importantes?

Both com and de can appear here, but they have slightly different nuances:

  • pasta com documentos importantes
    → a folder with important documents inside it
    → focuses on what is inside / accompanying the folder

  • pasta de documentos importantes
    → literally “folder of important documents”
    → often sounds more like a type or category of folder (a “documents folder”), or like a more fixed label

In everyday Brazilian speech, pasta com documentos importantes is more natural when you’re simply describing what she carries.

Pasta de documentos is more like “document folder” as a kind of object, or you might see it in labels or classifications.

Why is sempre placed between Ela and leva? Can we say Ela leva sempre uma pasta…?

Yes, both are grammatically correct. The common patterns with sempre are:

  • Ela sempre leva uma pasta… (very common)
  • Ela leva sempre uma pasta… (also correct, a bit more formal or emphatic)

In Brazilian Portuguese:

  • sempre is very frequently placed right after the subject and before the main verb.
  • Putting sempre after the verb can sound more emphatic in some contexts, but in many cases the difference is small.

So you can say:

  • Ela sempre leva uma pasta… (most neutral)
  • Ela leva sempre uma pasta… (slightly more marked, but fine)
Why is the tense leva (simple present) instead of something like “is always taking” in Portuguese?

Portuguese uses the simple present much more broadly than English.

  • Ela sempre leva uma pasta…
    → This describes a habitual action: something she normally does.

In English we often express habits with present simple too (“She always takes…”), but sometimes people say “She is always taking…” for emphasis.

In Portuguese:

  • Habitual action = simple present is standard:
    • Ela sempre leva uma pasta.

The progressive form está sempre levando would sound like strong emphasis or perhaps mild complaint (“she’s always taking a folder...”), and isn’t needed here for normal, neutral description.

Why is the preposition para used: para a reunião? Could we say à reunião or just na reunião?

Here’s the difference:

  • para a reunião
    → “to the meeting” = destination / purpose
    → She is taking the folder to the meeting.

  • à reunião
    → In theory, a + a reunião → à reunião is grammatically possible, but:

    • With verbs of movement in Brazilian Portuguese, para is much more common than a/à.
    • Levar à reunião sounds somewhat formal or old-fashioned in everyday Brazilian speech. → So para a reunião is more natural.

  • na reunião = em + a reunião
    → “in/at the meeting”. This describes location, not movement:

    • Ela sempre leva uma pasta com documentos importantes na reunião.
      This is ambiguous; it can sound like: “She always has / uses a folder with important documents during the meeting,” rather than clearly “takes it to the meeting.”

For clear movement/destination, para is the normal choice:

  • levar algo para a reunião
  • ir para a reunião
  • trazer algo para a reunião
Is there a colloquial form of para a reunião in spoken Brazilian Portuguese?

Yes. In informal speech, Brazilians often contract para a to pra:

  • Ela sempre leva uma pasta com documentos importantes pra reunião.

Notes:

  • pra = very common in speech and informal writing (messages, chats).
  • In more formal writing (reports, essays, exams), people usually prefer para a reunião explicitly, or sometimes para reunião (dropping the article, depending on style).
Can I change the word order and say Ela sempre leva para a reunião uma pasta com documentos importantes?

Yes, that’s grammatically correct. The version in your sentence:

  • Ela sempre leva uma pasta com documentos importantes para a reunião.

is more typical and flows more naturally in everyday speech:

  • subject (Ela) + adverb (sempre) + verb (leva) + direct object (uma pasta…) + destination (para a reunião).

Putting para a reunião in the middle:

  • Ela sempre leva para a reunião uma pasta com documentos importantes.

sounds more formal or stylistic, and is more common in written Portuguese than in casual speech, but it’s perfectly correct.

How is reunião pronounced, especially the -ão ending?

In Brazilian Portuguese:

  • reunião is roughly: “heh-oo-nee-AWN” (all in one word)

Key points:

  • reu- → sounds like “heh-oo” (a quick glide from e to u)
  • -ni- → like “nee”
  • -ão → nasal sound, similar to the “own” in “down” but nasalized:
    • The til (~) over ã indicates nasalization.
    • Don’t pronounce a separate “n” at the end; the n just signals that the vowel is nasal.

So you get one flowing word: reu-ni-ÃO (stress on the final syllable: reu-ni-ÃO).

Could we say Ela sempre carrega uma pasta instead of Ela sempre leva uma pasta? What’s the difference between levar and carregar?

You could say it, but it changes the nuance:

  • levar = to take (something) to a place (focus on destination / purpose)

    • Ela sempre leva uma pasta… para a reunião.
      → She always takes a folder to the meeting.

  • carregar = to carry (physically hold/bear something; focus on the physical act)

    • Ela sempre carrega uma pasta com documentos importantes.
      → She is always carrying a folder with important documents (with her, wherever she is).

The original sentence emphasizes that she takes the folder to the meeting as part of her usual preparation; levar fits that idea better than carregar.