Eu misturo o café com a colher, mas ela come o bolo com o garfo.

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Breakdown of Eu misturo o café com a colher, mas ela come o bolo com o garfo.

• comer: to eat
• o café: the coffee
• com: with

Questions & Answers about Eu misturo o café com a colher, mas ela come o bolo com o garfo.

Why is eu used here? Can I leave it out?

Usually, yes. Portuguese often allows you to omit subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows the subject.

So misturo o café already means I mix the coffee.

In this sentence, eu is included because it helps set up a contrast with ela: I do one thing, but she does another. In Brazilian Portuguese, subject pronouns are also used more often than in European Portuguese, so eu sounds perfectly natural.

Why is it misturo but come?

Because the verbs are being conjugated for different subjects and they come from different infinitives.

• misturo = I mix, from misturar
• come = she eats, from comer

These are present-tense forms:

• eu misturo
• ela come

So the ending changes depending on both the verb and the person.

What are the base forms of these verbs?

The infinitives are:

• misturar = to mix
• comer = to eat

A learner might notice:

• misturar is an -ar verb
• comer is an -er verb

Those verb groups have different conjugation patterns, which is why misturo and come do not look alike.