A médica perguntou qual sintoma eu tinha.

The doctor asked what symptom I had.

Breakdown of A médica perguntou qual sintoma eu tinha.

• eu: I
• ter: to have
• qual: what
• perguntar: to ask
• o sintoma: the symptom
• o médico: the doctor

Questions & Answers about A médica perguntou qual sintoma eu tinha.

Why is it A médica and not O médico? What does the accent mean?

A médica is feminine: it refers to a female doctor. If the doctor were male, you’d usually say O médico.
The accent in médica marks the stressed syllable: MÉ-di-ca. It also helps keep pronunciation consistent.

Why does Portuguese use a before médica? Is the article required?

Portuguese commonly uses definite articles (o, a, os, as) before professions/titles when referring to a specific person: A médica = the doctor (that specific doctor).
It’s not always strictly required, but it’s very natural and frequent in Brazilian Portuguese. Without the article (Médica perguntou...) it sounds unusual in most everyday contexts.

Why is perguntou in the past, and what past tense is it?

Perguntou is pretérito perfeito (simple past), used for a completed action: the asking happened and is done.
Infinitive: perguntar → ela perguntou = she asked.

Why is it qual sintoma and not que sintoma?

Both can work, but they feel a bit different:

• qual sintoma = which symptom (choosing/identifying among possible symptoms)
• que sintoma = often closer to what symptom (more open-ended)
  In practice, Brazilians use both; qual is very common in questions like this.

Why is there no question mark if the doctor asked something?

Because the sentence reports what someone asked (reported speech), so it’s a statement, not a direct question.
Direct question (with a question mark) would be: A médica perguntou: qual sintoma eu tinha? or more naturally A médica perguntou qual sintoma eu tinha. (indirect question, no ?)

Why is it eu tinha and not eu tive?

Tinha (imperfect: pretérito imperfeito) is commonly used in indirect speech to describe an ongoing state at that time: what symptom you had (were experiencing) when she asked.
Tive (preterite) would sound more like a completed event—like you had a symptom at some point and it ended. With symptoms, tinha is generally the natural choice.

Is tinha “had” or “used to have”?

It can be either depending on context. Imperfect covers:

• a past ongoing state: I had (at that moment)
• a habitual past: I used to have
  Here, because it’s tied to a specific moment (the doctor’s question), it’s best understood as I had / I was having.

Why is the verb at the end tinha and not tenho?

Because the asking happened in the past (perguntou), the reported content is framed in the past as well.
So you usually get a “past + past” sequence: perguntou ... eu tinha.
If you say perguntou ... eu tenho, it can sound like you still have the symptom now, and it’s less typical in this reporting structure.

Do I need to say eu? Can I drop it?

You often can drop it because the verb form already signals the person:

• A médica perguntou qual sintoma eu tinha.
• A médica perguntou qual sintoma tinha.
  Both can be correct. Keeping eu adds clarity/emphasis and is very common in Brazilian Portuguese.

Why isn’t it A médica perguntou-me... (with the pronoun attached)?

Brazilian Portuguese strongly prefers me before the verb in everyday speech/writing:

• A médica me perguntou qual sintoma eu tinha. (very common)
  The version in your sentence omits me entirely, which is also fine if it’s clear from context who was asked.
  Perguntou-me is more formal and more typical of European Portuguese or very formal Brazilian writing.

Why is it qual sintoma eu tinha and not qual sintoma que eu tinha?

In standard usage, qual sintoma eu tinha is already a complete indirect question.
Adding que (qual sintoma que eu tinha) is possible in some informal spoken Brazilian Portuguese, but it’s usually considered redundant or non-standard in careful writing.

What if there was more than one symptom?

You’d usually use plural:

• A médica perguntou quais sintomas eu tinha.
  (qual → quais, sintoma → sintomas)

Is sintoma masculine even though it ends in -a?

Yes. Sintoma is masculine: o sintoma, um sintoma.
Some Portuguese masculine nouns end in -a (often from Greek/learned words), e.g. o problema, o sistema, o tema.