Tanto o arroz quanto o feijão estão na mesma prateleira.

to be

Breakdown of Tanto o arroz quanto o feijão estão na mesma prateleira.

• na: on
• mesmo: same
• o arroz: the rice

Questions & Answers about Tanto o arroz quanto o feijão estão na mesma prateleira.

What does tanto ... quanto mean in this sentence?

Here, tanto ... quanto works like a pair and means both ... and.

So Tanto o arroz quanto o feijão means both the rice and the beans.

A useful thing to know is that tanto ... quanto can also mean as much ... as in other contexts, but in this sentence it is clearly the both ... and pattern.

Why is there o before both arroz and feijão?

O is the masculine singular definite article, like the in English.

In Portuguese, it is very common to use articles with nouns where English would often leave them out. So o arroz and o feijão sound natural here.

Also, both arroz and feijão are masculine nouns, so they take o.

Why is the verb estão plural?

Because the subject is made of two parts: o arroz + o feijão.

Even though each noun is singular by itself, together they form a compound subject, so the verb goes in the plural:

• O arroz está...
• O feijão está...
• O arroz e o feijão estão...

That is why the sentence uses estão, not está.

Could I also say O arroz e o feijão estão na mesma prateleira?