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Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Brazil): A paz é importante. - Peace is important.

Hardcore Portuguese (Brazil)
/Caring for a dog and cat
/A paz é importante.

A paz é importante.

Word

A paz é importante.

Meaning

Peace is important.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Hardcore Portuguese (Brazil)

Lesson

Caring for a dog and cat

Breakdown of A paz é importante.

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Questions & Answers about A paz é importante.

Why is there a before paz? In English we would usually just say peace.

Portuguese often uses the definite article with abstract nouns more naturally than English does.

So a paz is literally the peace, but in a sentence like this it means peace in a general sense.

The article also tells you that paz is:

feminine
singular

So even though English would usually leave the article out, Portuguese commonly includes it here.

How do I know paz is feminine if it does not end in -a?

In Portuguese, noun gender is not determined only by the ending.

It is true that many feminine nouns end in -a, but not all of them do. Paz is simply a feminine noun, and you learn that from usage and from the article: a paz.

Other feminine nouns also do not end in -a, so this is a good reminder that gender must often be learned with the noun itself.

Why is it é with an accent?

The accent is important because é and e are different words.

é = is
e = and

So the accent helps distinguish the verb form from the conjunction.

It also shows the stressed vowel sound. In Brazilian Portuguese, é is pronounced like eh, clearly stressed.

What verb is é?

É is the third-person singular present tense of ser.

So:

eu sou = I am
você é / ele é / ela é = you are / he is / she is

In A paz é importante, the subject is a paz, which is singular, so the verb must also be singular: é.

Why is ser used here and not estar?

Ser is used because the sentence expresses a general truth or an essential quality: peace is important.

That is exactly the kind of idea Portuguese normally expresses with ser.

If you used estar instead, it would sound unusual here and would suggest a more temporary or situational idea, which does not fit this sentence well.

So:

A paz é importante. = general statement
estar would not be the normal choice for this meaning

Why does importante not change to match the feminine noun?

Because importante is one of many adjectives that have the same form for masculine and feminine singular.

So you get:

o livro importante
a decisão importante

The adjective does change in the plural:

os livros importantes
as decisões importantes

So in this sentence, importante already agrees correctly with a paz.

Is the word order fixed? Can I say Importante é a paz?

The normal, neutral word order is:

A paz é importante.

You can change the order to something like Importante é a paz, but that sounds marked, emphatic, or literary. It is not the most natural everyday version for a basic statement.

For learners, A paz é importante is the best standard pattern to follow.

Can I drop the article and say Paz é importante?

You might see article omission in slogans, poetry, headlines, or very compressed style, but in ordinary standard Portuguese, A paz é importante sounds more natural.

So for normal speech and writing, keep the article:

A paz é importante.

Without the article, the sentence may sound less complete or more stylistically marked.

How is paz pronounced? Does the final z sound like English z?

Usually, no. In Brazilian Portuguese, a final z in a word like paz is normally pronounced like an s sound.

So paz sounds roughly like pahs.

A simple learner-friendly pronunciation of the full sentence is:

a pahs eh im-por-TAN-chee

That is only an approximation, but it is a helpful start.

How is the whole sentence pronounced in Brazilian Portuguese?

A simple approximation is:

a pahs eh im-por-TAN-chee

A few helpful notes:

a is a short open vowel
paz ends with an s sound
é sounds like eh
importante is stressed on tan

Depending on the region, the ending of importante may sound slightly different, but the stress pattern stays the same.

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