Breakdown of Este café está mais quente do que o outro.
Questions & Answers about Este café está mais quente do que o outro.
Why does the sentence use este and not esse or aquele?
Este means this and traditionally refers to something close to the speaker.
- este café = this coffee
- esse café = that coffee / this coffee near the listener
- aquele café = that coffee over there
In Brazilian Portuguese, everyday speech often uses esse where textbooks might expect este, so Esse café está mais quente... is also very common in conversation.
Still, este is completely correct and sounds a bit more careful or formal.
Why is it está and not é?
Portuguese usually uses estar for a temporary condition or state, and ser for a more permanent or defining characteristic.
Here, the coffee being hot is a temporary state, so:
- O café está quente. = The coffee is hot.
Using é quente would sound like you are describing coffee in general as something that is hot, not this specific coffee right now.
How does mais ... do que work in this sentence?
This is the basic comparative pattern for more ... than:
So the structure is:
[thing] + está + mais + [adjective] + do que + [other thing]
Example from the sentence:
- Este café está mais quente do que o outro.
- literally: This coffee is more hot than the other.
- natural English: This coffee is hotter than the other one.
Can I say mais quente que o outro instead of mais quente do que o outro?
Yes. In Brazilian Portuguese, both are used.
Both mean the same thing here.
Do que can sound a little clearer or slightly more formal, while que is very common in everyday speech.
Why does Portuguese say mais quente instead of using a special word like hotter?
Unlike English, Portuguese usually does not create a separate comparative form for most adjectives.
English:
- hot → hotter
- cold → colder
Portuguese:
- quente → mais quente
- frio → mais frio
So instead of changing the adjective itself, Portuguese normally adds mais before it.
Why is it o outro and not just outro?
Here o outro means the other one.
Since outro is standing alone and replacing the noun café, Portuguese normally uses the article:
- o outro = the other one / the other coffee
If the noun is stated explicitly, you can say:
- o outro café
- sometimes also outro café, depending on the context
But in this sentence, o outro is the most natural way to mean the other one.
Does quente change to match gender?
It matches in number, but not visibly in gender.
- masculine singular: café quente
- feminine singular: sopa quente
- masculine plural: cafés quentes
- feminine plural: sopas quentes
So quente is one of those adjectives that has the same singular form for masculine and feminine, but it still adds -s in the plural.
Could the sentence also be Este café está mais quente do que o outro café?
What do the accent marks in café and está do?
How is the sentence pronounced in Brazilian Portuguese?
A rough pronunciation guide is:
ehs-TEE kah-FEH es-TAH maiz KEN-chee doo KAY oo OH-troh
A few notes:
- café sounds like kah-FEH
- está sounds like es-TAH
- quente is roughly KEN-chee, though the first vowel is actually nasalized in real Brazilian pronunciation
- do que often sounds like doo KAY
- o outro may run together a bit in natural speech
A more IPA-style version is roughly:
/ˈes.tʃi kaˈfɛ esˈta majz ˈkẽ.tʃi du ki u ˈow.tɾu/
Pronunciation varies a bit by region, but this is a good Brazilian reference point.
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