Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Brazil): O jardim fica atrás da casa.

Ser (é) is for permanent identity or essential characteristics, not for where something is located. For location, Brazilian Portuguese prefers ficar or estar.

What exactly does fica mean in this sentence? I thought ficar meant “to stay” or “to become.”

Ficar has several common meanings:

To be located / to be situated
- O jardim fica atrás da casa. = The garden is (located) behind the house.
To stay / remain
- Eu vou ficar em casa. = I’m going to stay at home.
To become / get (change of state)
- Ele ficou triste. = He became / got sad.

Here it’s meaning “to be located.” That’s a very normal use with places, addresses, and directions.

Could I say O jardim está atrás da casa instead? Is there any difference from fica?

Yes, you can:

O jardim fica atrás da casa.
O jardim está atrás da casa.

Both are correct and very natural. The difference is subtle:

fica sounds a bit more neutral and is especially common in giving directions or describing where things are situated:
- O banco fica na esquina.
está can feel a bit more like a current situation, but for something fixed like a garden, most people will hear them as equivalent in practice.

In many contexts, you can choose freely between fica and está for location.

Why is it atrás da casa and not atrás de a casa?

Portuguese often contracts prepositions with articles. Here:

atrás de = behind
a casa = the house (feminine)

de + a → da

So:

atrás de + a casa → atrás da casa

Similarly:

de + o = do
de + as = das
de + os = dos

Examples:

atrás do carro = behind the car
atrás das casas = behind the houses

What’s the difference between atrás da casa and atrás de casa?

Both exist, but the nuance changes a bit:

atrás da casa
- More specific, refers to a particular house.
- Behind the house (that we’re talking about).
atrás de casa
- Often more general or informal, like “behind the house / out back / behind home”.
- Common in everyday speech:
  - Tem um quintal atrás de casa. = There’s a yard out back / behind the house (where I live).

If you’re describing a specific, mentioned house, atrás da casa is the clearer, more literal choice.

Can I change the word order and say Atrás da casa fica o jardim?

Yes. Both are correct:

O jardim fica atrás da casa.
Atrás da casa fica o jardim.

The second version puts more emphasis on the location “behind the house”. It’s a bit more stylistic or descriptive, but still natural.

Why does it start with O jardim and not just Jardim fica atrás da casa?

In Portuguese, you normally need the article with singular countable nouns, even when English might omit “the”:

O jardim fica atrás da casa. = The garden is behind the house.
❌ Jardim fica atrás da casa. (unnatural)

You could omit the article only in special cases, like headlines, labels, or some poetic/literary styles. In normal speech or writing, use O jardim.

Why is it O jardim (masculine) and da casa (feminine)? How do I know the genders?

Noun gender is mostly grammatical, not logical, and must be memorized word by word:

o jardim = the garden (masculine)
- article o shows masculine
a casa = the house (feminine)
- article a shows feminine

Then the preposition + article reflects that:

de + a casa = da casa (feminine)

Other examples:

o carro do João = João’s car
a porta da casa = the door of the house

When you learn a new noun, it helps to learn it with its article:

o jardim, a casa, o livro, a mesa, etc.

How would the sentence look in the plural, like “The gardens are behind the houses”?

You need to pluralize both the nouns and the verb, and adjust the contraction:

Os jardins ficam atrás das casas.

Breakdown:

O jardim → os jardins (add -s)
a casa → as casas
fica → ficam (3rd person singular → plural)
de + as casas → das casas

So the full transformation:

O jardim fica atrás da casa.
→ Os jardins ficam atrás das casas.

How do you pronounce jardim and what is that nasal sound at the end?

In Brazilian Portuguese:

jardim = [ʒaʁˈdʒĩ] (approximate)

Pieces:

j = like the “s” in English “measure” or “vision”
r (in this position) = often a guttural sound in the throat, somewhat like the French r or a soft h in some accents
-im = nasal “een”, but with air through the nose; you don’t clearly pronounce the final m, it just nasalizes the vowel.

Stress is on the second syllable: jar-DIM.

Is there any difference between atrás and trás?

Yes:

atrás is the normal, independent word for “behind” / “at the back”:
- O jardim fica atrás da casa.
trás almost never appears alone in modern Portuguese. It survives mainly in fixed expressions:
- para trás = backwards
- por trás = from behind

You wouldn’t normally say O jardim fica trás da casa; it must be atrás da casa.

How else can I talk about location with ficar around a house?

You can use other common prepositions + ficar similarly:

O jardim fica na frente da casa. = The garden is in front of the house.
A garagem fica ao lado da casa. = The garage is beside the house.
A escola fica perto da casa. = The school is near the house.
O mercado fica longe da casa. = The supermarket is far from the house.

The structure is the same:
[place] + fica + [preposition phrase].