Hoje o vento está muito forte.

to be

Breakdown of Hoje o vento está muito forte.

• hoje: today
• muito: very
• o vento: the wind

Questions & Answers about Hoje o vento está muito forte.

Why is there an o before vento? In English we just say “wind,” not “the wind.”

In Portuguese, nouns almost always need an article (a word like o, a, os, as) unless there’s another determiner (like este, aquele, meu).

• O vento = the wind
• Just vento on its own is usually not a complete subject in standard speech.

In English, with weather we often drop the article:

• “Wind is strong today” (not typical, but possible)
• More often: “The wind is strong today” or “It’s windy today.”

Portuguese generally prefers O vento está muito forte over bare Vento está muito forte, which sounds wrong in normal sentences (you’d only see something like that in a headline: Vento muito forte hoje).

Why do we use está instead of é for “is” here?

Portuguese has two verbs for “to be”: ser and estar.

• estar is used for temporary states, conditions, or current situations.
• ser is used for permanent or defining characteristics.

Weather conditions at a specific moment are seen as temporary:

• Hoje o vento está muito forte.
  “Today the wind is very strong.” (right now; temporary)

If you talk about a place where the wind is always strong:

• Aqui o vento é muito forte.
  “Here the wind is very strong.” (as a general, permanent trait of that place)

So with hoje (today), it’s clearly about the current, temporary situation, so está is the natural choice.

Muito can mean “very” or “a lot.” Why is it muito and not here?