O ar-condicionado do quarto é bom, mas eu ainda prefiro dormir com o ventilador ligado.

Ar-condicionado means air conditioner or air conditioning.

Literally, it comes from ar = air and condicionado = conditioned. So it is basically conditioned air.

A few useful notes:

• It is a masculine noun, so it takes o: o ar-condicionado
• In Brazil, people often use it both for:
  • the appliance/unit: O ar-condicionado quebrou.
  • the air conditioning in general: Tem ar-condicionado no hotel.

The hyphen in ar-condicionado is standard spelling.

Because Portuguese normally contracts de + o into do.

So:

• de + o = do
• de + a = da
• de + os = dos
• de + as = das

That means:

• o ar-condicionado do quarto

literally = the air conditioner of the room

In natural English, that would usually be:

• the bedroom air conditioner
• the air conditioner in the bedroom

Here, quarto means bedroom.

In Portuguese:

• quarto usually = bedroom
• cômodo = room in the broader sense of a room in a house
• sala = living room or sitting room

So o ar-condicionado do quarto is most naturally understood as the air conditioner in the bedroom.

This is a classic ser vs. estar question.

Here, é bom is used because the sentence is talking about a more general quality of the air conditioner: it is a good one, or it works well in general.

• é bom = it is good
• está bom = it is good right now / it is okay at the moment

So:

• O ar-condicionado do quarto é bom
  = The bedroom air conditioner is good.

If you said está bom, it would sound more temporary or situational, like it’s working fine right now.

Yes, it could be omitted.

Portuguese often drops subject pronouns when the verb already makes the subject clear. So both of these are correct:

• mas eu ainda prefiro...
• mas ainda prefiro...

The version with eu adds a bit of emphasis or contrast, something like:

• but I still prefer...

Since the sentence contrasts two ideas, keeping eu sounds very natural.

Here, ainda means still.

So:

• eu ainda prefiro = I still prefer

It shows that even though the air conditioner is good, the speaker’s preference has not changed.

Common meanings of ainda include:

• still: Ainda estou aqui. = I’m still here.
• yet / even in some contexts

In this sentence, still is the best translation.

Because in Portuguese, preferir can be followed directly by an infinitive.

So:

• prefiro dormir = I prefer to sleep

This is very normal.

Other examples:

• Prefiro ficar em casa. = I prefer to stay home.
• Prefiro sair cedo. = I prefer to leave early.

English often uses to before the infinitive, but Portuguese does not need anything extra here.

Ligado here means on.

So:

• dormir com o ventilador ligado = to sleep with the fan on

Literally, ligado is the past participle of ligar, which often means to turn on, to connect, or to switch on.

Examples:

• ligar o ventilador = to turn on the fan
• o ventilador está ligado = the fan is on

In this sentence, ligado describes the state of the fan while the person sleeps.

Because ligado agrees with ventilador, and ventilador is masculine.

• o ventilador → masculine singular
• so: ligado

If the noun were feminine, the form would change:

• a televisão está ligada = the TV is on
• a luz está ligada = the light is on

So the agreement is:

• masculine singular: ligado
• feminine singular: ligada
• masculine plural: ligados
• feminine plural: ligadas

Very often, yes.

For devices and electrical appliances in Brazilian Portuguese:

• ligado = on
• desligado = off

Examples:

• O ar-condicionado está ligado. = The air conditioner is on.
• O ventilador está desligado. = The fan is off.

But ligar and ligado can have other meanings too, depending on context, such as to call, to connect, or connected.

Portuguese uses articles more often than English does.

So in Portuguese, it is very natural to say:

• o ar-condicionado
• o ventilador

even when English might sound more natural without such explicit articles in some contexts.

In this sentence:

• o ar-condicionado do quarto refers to a specific air conditioner
• o ventilador also refers to a specific fan the speaker has in mind

Using the articles sounds completely normal here.

Mas means but.

It introduces a contrast:

• O ar-condicionado do quarto é bom
  = The bedroom air conditioner is good
• mas eu ainda prefiro dormir com o ventilador ligado
  = but I still prefer to sleep with the fan on

So the speaker is saying:

• the air conditioner is good
• however, despite that, they still prefer the fan

Some changes are possible, but the original order is the most natural.

The sentence has:

• mas eu ainda prefiro...

This is natural because ainda comes before the verb and clearly modifies the idea of still prefer.

You might hear variation in speech, but:

• ainda prefiro = very natural
• prefiro ainda = possible in some contexts, but less neutral here and can sound marked or stylistically unusual

For a learner, ainda prefiro is the safest and most natural choice.

Yes, exactly.

A very literal breakdown is:

• dormir = to sleep
• com = with
• o ventilador = the fan
• ligado = on / turned on

So literally:

• to sleep with the fan turned on

In natural English, that is usually just:

• to sleep with the fan on

Yes. That would be a different but related sentence.

• Prefiro o ventilador ao ar-condicionado. = I prefer the fan to the air conditioner.

That structure directly compares one thing to another.

But the original sentence is slightly different:

• prefiro dormir com o ventilador ligado = I prefer sleeping with the fan on

So the original focuses on the speaker’s preferred way of sleeping, not just a direct noun-to-noun comparison.

Yes, it sounds very natural.

It is clear, idiomatic, and something a Brazilian speaker could easily say. It has a very everyday feel:

• O ar-condicionado do quarto é bom = a normal comment about the room
• mas eu ainda prefiro dormir com o ventilador ligado = a very natural personal preference

A Brazilian might also omit eu and say:

• O ar-condicionado do quarto é bom, mas ainda prefiro dormir com o ventilador ligado.

That is equally natural.