Questions & Answers about A corrente está suja.
Portuguese usually uses estar for temporary states or conditions, and ser for more permanent characteristics.
So A corrente está suja means the chain is dirty right now / in its current state.
If you said A corrente é suja, it would sound more like dirtiness is a defining characteristic of the chain, which is usually not what you want.
A useful shortcut:
- ser = what something is
- estar = how something is
A is the feminine singular definite article, meaning the.
So:
- a corrente = the chain
Portuguese nouns usually take an article more often than in English, so using a here is completely normal.
Because corrente is a feminine noun in Portuguese, so it takes:
That is why you get:
- a corrente
- suja and not sujo
Grammatical gender in Portuguese is a property of the noun, and it does not always match natural gender or any obvious logic in English. It is something you often just need to learn with each noun.