A terra está molhada.

The ground is wet.

Breakdown of A terra está molhada.

• estar: to be
• molhado: wet
• a terra: land; ground

Questions & Answers about A terra está molhada.

Why is it a terra and not just terra?

In Portuguese, it is very common to use the definite article with nouns when talking about something specific or understood from context. So a terra means the ground / the soil / the earth in this sentence.

You can sometimes omit the article in other contexts, but A terra está molhada sounds like the most natural basic sentence here.

What does terra mean in this sentence?

Here, terra most naturally means ground, soil, or earth.

Depending on context, terra can also mean:

• land
• the Earth as a planet
• countryside / homeland in some expressions

In A terra está molhada, the usual interpretation is the ground is wet or the soil is wet.

Why does the sentence use está instead of é?

Portuguese has two main verbs for to be: ser and estar.

Here, está is used because being wet is seen as a temporary condition or current state. The ground is wet now, probably because of rain or water.

So:

• estar molhada = to be wet right now / in this situation
• ser molhada would usually sound unnatural here

This is one of the most important differences between ser and estar.