A sopa tem batata, tomate e cebola.

to have

Breakdown of A sopa tem batata, tomate e cebola.

• a sopa: the soup
• e: and
• o tomate: the tomato

Questions & Answers about A sopa tem batata, tomate e cebola.

Why does the sentence start with a in A sopa?

A is the feminine singular definite article, meaning the.

• sopa is a feminine singular noun
• so it takes a
• A sopa = the soup

In Portuguese, nouns have grammatical gender, so the article has to match the noun:

• o livro = the book
• a sopa = the soup

How do I know that sopa is feminine?

You usually learn the gender together with the noun: a sopa, not just sopa by itself.

Many nouns ending in -a are feminine, and sopa follows that common pattern. But gender is not always predictable in Portuguese, so it is best to memorize nouns with their article.

For example:

• a sopa
• a cebola
• a batata
• o tomate

What does tem mean here?

Tem is the he/she/it form of the verb ter, which usually means to have.

In this sentence, tem is being used in the sense of contains or has in it:

• A sopa tem batata = The soup has potato / The soup contains potato

This is very natural in Brazilian Portuguese. People often use ter where English would use have or contain.