Breakdown of Toda a vizinhança ficou em silêncio quando a reunião começou.
quando
when
começar
to start
ficar
to become
a reunião
the meeting
Questions & Answers about Toda a vizinhança ficou em silêncio quando a reunião começou.
Why is it toda a vizinhança and not todas as vizinhanças?
Because vizinhança is a singular collective noun here. It refers to the whole neighborhood or all the people in the surrounding area as one group.
So:
- toda a vizinhança = the whole neighborhood / everyone in the neighborhood
- todas as vizinhanças would mean all the neighborhoods, which is a different idea
In Portuguese, it is very common to use a singular noun this way when talking about a group as a whole.
Why do we need both toda and a?
In Brazilian Portuguese, when todo/toda means the whole / entire, it is often used with a definite article:
- todo o dia = the whole day
- toda a cidade = the whole city
- toda a vizinhança = the whole neighborhood
Without the article, todo/toda can sometimes mean every / any, depending on the context:
- toda cidade tem problemas = every city has problems
So in your sentence, toda a vizinhança clearly means the entire neighborhood.
What exactly does vizinhança mean here: the place or the people?