O pelo está limpo.

to be

Breakdown of O pelo está limpo.

• limpo: clean
• o pelo: the animal's fur; hair

Questions & Answers about O pelo está limpo.

Why is there an article o before pelo?

In Portuguese, articles are used more often than in English. So o pelo is very natural where English might just say fur or hair without the.

Here, o is the masculine singular definite article, meaning the.

• o pelo = the fur / the hair
• um pelo = a hair / a strand of fur in some contexts

In a sentence like this, o pelo can refer to the coat/fur in a general sense, not just one single hair.

What does pelo mean here exactly?

Here, pelo means fur, coat, or body hair, depending on context.

A useful distinction is:

• pelo = fur, body hair, animal hair, or hair in a more general physical sense
• cabelo = the hair on someone’s head

So:

• O pelo está limpo. → talking about fur/body hair/coat
• O cabelo está limpo. → talking about someone’s head hair

If this sentence is about an animal, pelo is especially natural.

Why is it está and not é?