Breakdown of A mudança foi organizada pela Ana com muita antecedência.
Questions & Answers about A mudança foi organizada pela Ana com muita antecedência.
Because foi organizada is the passive voice in Portuguese:
- A mudança foi organizada... = The change/move was organized...
It focuses on A mudança (the thing affected), not on who did it.
If you wanted the active voice, you’d typically say:
- A Ana organizou a mudança com muita antecedência. = Ana organized the change/move well in advance.
It’s formed with:
ser (conjugated) + past participle
- foi = past (preterite) of ser (was)
- organizada = past participle of organizar (organized)
So: foi organizada = was organized.
The past participle agrees in gender and number with the noun it describes in passive voice.
- A mudança is feminine singular → organizada (feminine singular)
If it were masculine: - O evento foi organizado... (masculine singular)
If plural feminine: - As mudanças foram organizadas... (feminine plural)
pela is a contraction of por + a:
- por a Ana → pela Ana
In passive voice, por introduces the agent (the doer):
- foi organizada pela Ana = was organized by Ana
You could also see:
- por Ana (less common in everyday Brazilian Portuguese; usually you’ll hear the contraction with the article)
In Brazilian Portuguese, it’s very common to use a definite article before people’s names, especially in many regions:
- a Ana, o João
It’s regional/style-based. In more formal writing, or depending on the region, it may be omitted:
- A mudança foi organizada por Ana com muita antecedência. (also possible)
Yes. Word order is flexible, though some placements sound more natural. For example:
- A mudança foi organizada pela Ana com muita antecedência. (very natural)
- A mudança foi organizada com muita antecedência pela Ana. (also correct; slightly more emphasis on the timing first)
- Pela Ana, a mudança foi organizada com muita antecedência. (possible, but more marked/emphatic)
mudança can mean:
1) change (a change in plan, policy, situation, etc.)
2) a move (moving house / relocation)
The correct interpretation depends on context. If you wanted to be very explicit about moving house, you might also see:
- mudança de casa (house move)
- mudança de apartamento (apartment move)
It’s an adverbial phrase meaning well in advance / with plenty of notice:
- com = with
- muita = a lot of (feminine singular to match antecedência)
- antecedência = advance/lead time/notice
It describes how early it was organized.
Related, but not the same.
- antes = simply before (a basic time adverb)
- com antecedência = ahead of time / in advance (focus on planning/lead time)
Compare:
- Ela chegou antes. = She arrived earlier/before.
- Ela avisou com antecedência. = She let us know in advance.
Because antecedência is a feminine noun, so muito must agree:
- muita antecedência (feminine)
For a masculine noun, you’d use muito: - muito tempo (a lot of time)
foi is pretérito perfeito (simple past) of ser. It typically implies a completed action in the past:
- The organizing happened and was completed.
If you wanted to stress an ongoing past situation (less common here), you might see era organizada (imperfect), but that would change the meaning (habitual/ongoing background).
A natural active version is:
- A Ana organizou a mudança com muita antecedência.
If you want to keep A mudança first (topicalized), you can do:
- A mudança, a Ana organizou com muita antecedência. (correct, more emphasis/contrast)
Common points:
- mudança: the ç sounds like s; nasal -ança often sounds like AN-sah with nasalization.
- organizada: the d in Brazilian Portuguese often sounds like j before i (so -di- can sound like jee): or-ga-ni-ZAH-dah (approx.).
- antecedência: stress usually falls on -ên-: an-te-se-DÊN-sia (approx.).