Esta garrafa é reciclável.

Both are demonstratives, but they usually point to different degrees of distance.

• esta = this
• essa = that

In careful grammar:

• esta garrafa means the bottle is close to the speaker
• essa garrafa means the bottle is close to the listener, or a little less directly connected to the speaker

In everyday Brazilian Portuguese, many people use essa very often, even where traditional grammar would expect esta. So Esta garrafa é reciclável is correct, and Essa garrafa é reciclável can also sound natural depending on context.

Because esta already works like a determiner. In English, you say this bottle, not this the bottle. Portuguese works the same way here.

So:

• esta garrafa = this bottle
• not a esta garrafa in this sentence

The demonstrative esta already introduces the noun.

Portuguese nouns have grammatical gender, and garrafa is a feminine noun.

You can see that in:

• the form esta instead of este
• other feminine words that would go with it, such as a garrafa, uma garrafa

This does not mean the bottle is biologically female. It is just a grammatical category.

Because garrafa is feminine.

The demonstrative has to agree with the noun:

• masculine singular: este
• feminine singular: esta

Examples:

• este copo = this cup
• esta garrafa = this bottle

This kind of agreement is very common in Portuguese.

é is the he/she/it form of the verb ser, meaning is.

So:

• Esta garrafa é reciclável = This bottle is recyclable

Portuguese often uses ser to describe what something is, or a general characteristic of it. Here, being recyclable is treated as a characteristic of the bottle.

Because ser and estar are not interchangeable.

Use ser for:

• identity
• classification
• essential or general characteristics

Use estar for:

• temporary states
• condition
• location

Here, reciclável describes a property or classification of the bottle, so é is the natural choice.

Compare:

• A garrafa é reciclável. = The bottle is recyclable.
• A garrafa está vazia. = The bottle is empty.

The accent mark shows that é is pronounced as a stressed vowel and also helps distinguish it from e, which means and.

So:

• é = is
• e = and

This is a very important difference in writing.

The accent mark shows where the stress falls: reciclável is stressed on the syllable lá.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

• re-ci-CLÁ-vel

Without the accent, Portuguese stress rules would suggest a different pronunciation, so the accent is necessary.

Not in the singular.

• reciclável can be used with masculine or feminine singular nouns:
  • o material reciclável
  • a garrafa reciclável

What changes is the plural:

• singular: reciclável
• plural: recicláveis

So:

• Esta garrafa é reciclável.
• Estas garrafas são recicláveis.

A simple approximate pronunciation for an English speaker is:

ES-ta ga-HA-fa eh heh-see-klah-vel

A few notes for Brazilian Portuguese:

• rr in garrafa is a strong throaty h-like sound in most of Brazil
• é sounds like eh
• v in reciclável is a real v sound
• the stress is on:
  • ESta
  • gaRRAfa
  • é
  • reciCLÁvel

A more syllable-based breakdown:

• ES-ta
• ga-RRA-fa
• é
• re-ci-CLÁ-vel

Usually yes. It is a very close cognate and normally means that something can be recycled.

So in this sentence, reciclável means exactly what an English speaker expects: the bottle can go through recycling.

Just be aware that Portuguese, like English, may still depend on context. A bottle may be technically recyclable, but local recycling rules may vary.

Yes. That means The bottle is recyclable.

The difference is:

• Esta garrafa é reciclável = this bottle is recyclable
• A garrafa é reciclável = the bottle is recyclable

So esta points to a specific bottle in relation to the speaker, while a simply means the.

The plural would be:

Estas garrafas são recicláveis.

Here is what changes:

• esta → estas
• garrafa → garrafas
• é → são
• reciclável → recicláveis

This is a good example of how several words in Portuguese often change together to match number.

The normal and most natural order is:

Esta garrafa é reciclável.

That is:

• demonstrative
• noun
• verb
• adjective

You might hear other word orders in poetry, emphasis, or very marked speech, but for everyday Portuguese, this is the standard pattern and the one learners should use.

They are different ideas:

• reciclável = recyclable, able to be recycled
• reciclada = recycled, already recycled

So:

• Esta garrafa é reciclável. = This bottle can be recycled.
• Esta garrafa é reciclada. = This bottle is recycled, or made from recycled material, depending on context.

That is an important meaning difference.