O motorista abriu o porta-malas para colocar as sacolas do supermercado.

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Breakdown of O motorista abriu o porta-malas para colocar as sacolas do supermercado.

• abrir: to open
• do: of the
• as: the

Questions & Answers about O motorista abriu o porta-malas para colocar as sacolas do supermercado.

Why does the sentence start with O motorista instead of just motorista?

In Portuguese, it is very common to use the definite article before a noun when talking about a specific person or thing.

• o motorista = the driver
• motorista by itself can mean driver in a more general or dictionary-style sense

Here, O motorista tells us we are talking about a specific driver.

Why is it o motorista if the driver could be a woman?

Motorista is one of those Portuguese nouns that often keeps the same form for both masculine and feminine. The article changes to show gender:

• o motorista = the male driver
• a motorista = the female driver

So in this sentence, o tells you the driver is male.

What tense is abriu?

Abriu is the preterite form of the verb abrir (to open). The preterite is used for a completed action in the past.

• abrir = to open
• ele abriu = he opened

So O motorista abriu means The driver opened.

Why is it abriu o porta-malas and not abriu porta-malas?