A doença afetou a família.

Because both nouns are being used with the definite article a (the).

• a doença = the disease / the illness
• a família = the family

In Portuguese, definite articles are often used more naturally and more frequently than in English. So a sentence that feels fine in English without much article emphasis may still naturally use a/o/as/os in Portuguese.

Here, the sentence is talking about:

• a specific disease, or
• the disease as the relevant one in context,

and a specific family.

Afetou is the pretérito perfeito simples in Portuguese, which usually corresponds to the simple past in English.

It is the 3rd person singular form of the verb afetar (to affect).

Conjugation:

• eu afetei
• tu afetaste
• ele/ela/você afetou
• nós afetámos
• vós afetastes
• eles/elas/vocês afetaram

So:

• A doença afetou a família.
• The disease affected the family.

It describes a completed action in the past.

The base form is afetar.

Yes, it is a regular -ar verb, so it follows the normal pattern of regular -ar verbs in the preterite.

For example:

• falar → falou
• ajudar → ajudou
• afetar → afetou

That makes afetou relatively straightforward to learn once you know regular verb endings.

In modern standard spelling, especially under the current orthographic agreement, the usual spelling is afetou.

Older Portuguese spelling often had afectou, from afectar. In European Portuguese, you may still see older spellings in older books, older newspapers, or from people who prefer pre-reform spelling.

So for a learner, the safest modern form to use is:

• afetar
• afetou

If you come across afectar / afectou, recognise it as an older spelling variant.

A careful European Portuguese pronunciation is approximately:

a do-EN-sa a-fe-TOU a fa-MI-lia

More closely:

• A often sounds like a very reduced uh
• doença is roughly doo-EN-sa, but with European vowel reduction
• afetou is roughly uh-feh-TOH
• família is roughly fuh-MEE-lya

A more IPA-like guide for European Portuguese would be approximately:

[ɐ duˈẽsɐ ɐfɛˈtow ɐ fɐˈmiljɐ]

A few important points:

• ç in doença sounds like s
• ou in afetou is pronounced like a close o sound in European Portuguese
• unstressed a often becomes a reduced sound, not a full English ah

The ç is called cedilha.

It makes the c sound like s before a, o, or u.

So:

• ça = sa
• ço = so
• çu = su

In doença, the ç tells you to pronounce it with an s sound:

• doença → not with a hard k sound
• it sounds like do-en-sa

Without the cedilla, ca/co/cu would normally sound hard, like k.

The accent in família shows the stressed syllable and helps mark the vowel quality.

• família is stressed on mí
• roughly: fa-MÍ-lia

The written accent helps you avoid stressing it incorrectly.

This is especially useful for learners because Portuguese stress is not always predictable from English habits.

Doença can often be translated as disease, illness, or sometimes sickness, depending on context.

In many everyday situations:

• doença = illness
• in more medical or formal contexts, it may sound more like disease

So in this sentence, if the meaning has already been provided, you do not need to force a strict one-word match every time. Portuguese words often cover a range that overlaps with several English words.

Because a família means the family as one group or unit.

Portuguese, like English, often treats family as a singular collective noun when referring to the household or group as a whole.

So:

• A doença afetou a família. = the family as one unit was affected.

If you wanted to talk about several families, you would use:

• As doenças afetaram as famílias. = The diseases affected the families.

Yes, but the meaning changes.

• A doença afetou a família.
  = The disease affected the family.
  This refers to a completed event in the past.

• A doença afetava a família.
  = The disease was affecting the family / used to affect the family.
  This is the imperfect, often used for ongoing, repeated, or background past situations.

So the original sentence is about a finished past action, while afetava gives a more ongoing or habitual sense.

The normal, neutral word order is:

A doença afetou a família.
subject + verb + object

That is the most natural order for a simple statement.

You could sometimes change word order for emphasis, but it would sound less neutral. For example:

• A família foi afetada pela doença.
  = The family was affected by the disease.

This passive version shifts the focus onto the family instead of the disease.

For most learners, the original word order is the best one to use.

In this sentence, leaving out the articles would usually sound unnatural.

• A doença afetou a família. ✅ natural
• Doença afetou família. ❌ unnatural in normal Portuguese

Portuguese generally likes articles in sentences like this, especially with ordinary countable nouns used in a specific sense.

Yes. Afetar is a broad verb and can be used for many kinds of impact:

• physical: a disease affects the body
• emotional: an event affects someone emotionally
• social/economic: a crisis affects a family

So A doença afetou a família can suggest that the family was affected in a general sense — physically, emotionally, socially, financially, or all of these — depending on context.

That broadness is very similar to English affect.

Yes, it is completely natural and grammatical.

It sounds neutral and standard. Depending on context, a speaker might also choose other verbs for slightly different shades of meaning, such as:

• A doença atingiu a família. = the disease struck the family
• A doença prejudicou a família. = the disease harmed the family
• A família foi afetada pela doença. = the family was affected by the disease

But A doença afetou a família is perfectly normal and idiomatic.

It can be either, depending on context.

Família may refer to:

• the immediate household
• close relatives
• the family as a whole more generally

So in this sentence, a família could mean:

• one household living together,
• or the wider family unit affected by the illness.

The sentence itself does not specify how broad the family group is.

In:

A doença afetou a família.

• A doença = the subject
  it is the thing doing the affecting

• afetou = the verb

• a família = the direct object
  it is the thing being affected

So the structure is:

subject + verb + direct object

This is a very common and useful sentence pattern in Portuguese.