O protetor solar está com você?

O is the masculine singular definite article, meaning the. Portuguese uses articles more often than English does, so o protetor solar simply means the sunscreen.

In this sentence, it sounds like the speaker is asking about a specific sunscreen that both people know about.

Literally, it is something like solar protector. In natural English, the usual translation is sunscreen.

In Brazil, protetor solar is a very common everyday term. You may also hear filtro solar.

It uses está because the idea is about a temporary situation or current possession: whether the sunscreen is currently with you.

Ser (é) is used for identity, permanent characteristics, and definitions, so it would not fit here. This is one of the common uses of estar in Portuguese.

Here, estar com means to be with someone, in the sense of to be in someone’s possession or to be on someone / with someone physically.

So O protetor solar está com você? is asking whether the sunscreen is currently with you, not whether it belongs to you.

No. This sentence usually means Do you have the sunscreen with you? or Is the sunscreen with you?

If you wanted to ask whether someone has sunscreen on their skin, you would normally say something like Você está usando protetor solar? or Você passou protetor solar?

In Brazilian Portuguese, você is the most common singular word for you in many regions and situations. It is usually neutral and everyday, not especially formal.

Depending on the region or level of formality, you might also hear:

• tu in some parts of Brazil
• o senhor / a senhora in more formal situations

Yes, absolutely. Você está com o protetor solar? is very natural.

The version O protetor solar está com você? puts the focus first on the sunscreen. The version Você está com o protetor solar? puts the focus first on you. Both can mean almost the same thing in everyday conversation.

In Brazilian Portuguese, com você is much more common than contigo. Both can mean with you, but contigo is less common in everyday Brazilian speech and may sound literary, regional, or more European Portuguese.

So for Brazilian Portuguese, com você is the safest and most natural choice.

Some natural answers are:

• Sim, está comigo. = Yes, it’s with me.
• Não, não está comigo. = No, it’s not with me.
• Sim, eu estou com ele. = Yes, I have it with me.
• Não, deixei em casa. = No, I left it at home.

Notice that comigo means with me.

A simple approximation is:

oh pro-teh-TOR so-LAR es-TAH kom vo-SEH?

A few helpful notes:

• protetor is stressed on the last syllable: tor
• solar is also stressed on the last syllable: lar
• está is stressed on the second syllable
• você is stressed on the last syllable: cê

In casual speech, you may hear reductions like tá instead of está.

The accent marks show the stressed syllable and help with pronunciation.

• está tells you the stress falls on tá
• você tells you the stress falls on cê

For learners, these accents are very useful because Portuguese stress is not always predictable from spelling alone.