A resposta está errada.

to be

Breakdown of A resposta está errada.

• a resposta: the answer
• errado: wrong

Questions & Answers about A resposta está errada.

Why does the sentence start with A?

A is the feminine singular definite article, meaning the.

It is used here because resposta is a feminine singular noun:

• a resposta = the answer

In Portuguese, nouns usually need an article more often than in English, so A resposta sounds very natural.

Why is it resposta and not resposto?

Resposta is a noun meaning answer or response, and it is inherently feminine in Portuguese. Nouns have grammatical gender, so you simply learn them with their article:

• a resposta = the answer
• not o resposta

The ending -a often suggests a feminine noun, and that is the case here.

Why is it está instead of é?

Portuguese has two main verbs for to be: ser and estar.

Here, está is used because the sentence is describing a condition or state:

• A resposta está errada. = The answer is wrong.

This is the most natural choice when talking about something being correct or incorrect in a given situation.

Compare:

• está errada = is wrong
• está certa = is right

Using é errada is much less natural here and would sound more like saying the answer is inherently wrong by nature, which is not usually the idea.