Se você colocar muito açúcar, o café fica doce demais.

If you put too much sugar in, the coffee gets too sweet.

Breakdown of Se você colocar muito açúcar, o café fica doce demais.

• você: you
• doce: sweet
• o café: the coffee
• se: if

Questions & Answers about Se você colocar muito açúcar, o café fica doce demais.

Why is it se você colocar and not se você coloca?

After se meaning if, Portuguese usually uses the future subjunctive when the condition is about a possible future action.

So in this sentence:

• Se você colocar muito açúcar... = If you put a lot of sugar...

With the verb colocar, the future subjunctive form is colocar, which looks exactly like the infinitive. That is why it may seem unusual at first.

A few examples:

• Se você fizer isso... = If you do that...
• Se você puder vir... = If you can come...
• Se você colocar açúcar... = If you put sugar...

What does colocar mean here? Is it put or add?

Both are possible, but in this context add is the most natural English translation.

• colocar açúcar no café = to put/add sugar in the coffee

So Se você colocar muito açúcar... means If you add too much / a lot of sugar...

In everyday Brazilian Portuguese, colocar is very commonly used where English might prefer put or add, depending on the context.

Why does the sentence use fica? Why not é?