Ontem meu cunhado trouxe a família para jantar, e minha cunhada fez a sobremesa.

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Breakdown of Ontem meu cunhado trouxe a família para jantar, e minha cunhada fez a sobremesa.

• meu: my
• minha: my
• e: and

Questions & Answers about Ontem meu cunhado trouxe a família para jantar, e minha cunhada fez a sobremesa.

What do cunhado and cunhada mean, and why are they different?

They mean brother-in-law and sister-in-law.

• cunhado = brother-in-law
• cunhada = sister-in-law

Portuguese nouns usually have grammatical gender, so the ending often changes:

• -o often marks a masculine form
• -a often marks a feminine form

So here:

• meu cunhado = my brother-in-law
• minha cunhada = my sister-in-law

Why is it meu cunhado but minha cunhada?

Both meu and minha mean my, but they must agree with the gender of the noun that comes after them.

• meu
  • masculine singular noun
• minha
  • feminine singular noun

So:

• meu cunhado because cunhado is masculine
• minha cunhada because cunhada is feminine

The speaker’s gender does not matter here. A man or a woman would both say meu cunhado and minha cunhada.

What tense are and ?