A pele ficou seca.

The skin became dry.

Breakdown of A pele ficou seca.

• ficar: to stay
• o: the
• seco: dry
• a pele: skin

Questions & Answers about A pele ficou seca.

What does ficou mean here?

Here, ficou comes from the verb ficar and means something like became, got, or ended up.

So A pele ficou seca is literally close to The skin became dry or The skin got dry.

In European Portuguese, ficar is very commonly used for a change of state:

• ficar cansado = to get tired
• ficar doente = to get sick
• ficar vermelho = to turn red

So in this sentence, the idea is not just that the skin was dry, but that it became dry.

Why is ficar used instead of ser or estar?

Because ficar often expresses a resulting change.

Compare:

• A pele ficou seca. = The skin became/got dry.
• A pele está seca. = The skin is dry.
• A pele era seca. = The skin was dry / used to be dry.
• A pele foi seca is generally not what you would say for this meaning.

So ficou seca focuses on the moment or process of the skin ending up in a dry state.

What tense is ficou?