Eu estou cansado hoje.

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Breakdown of Eu estou cansado hoje.

• hoje: today
• estar: to be
• cansado: tired

Questions & Answers about Eu estou cansado hoje.

Why do we use estou instead of sou in this sentence?

Estar generally indicates a temporary state or condition, such as being tired, whereas ser is used for permanent or more inherent characteristics. Since feeling tired is temporary, estou is the correct choice.

Why cansado and not cansada?

This depends on the speaker’s gender (or grammatical gender agreement). A male speaker or a masculine subject uses cansado; a female speaker or a feminine subject would say cansada. If a woman says this sentence, it would be Eu estou cansada hoje.

Is it necessary to include Eu at the start?

It’s not strictly necessary. In Portuguese, subject pronouns can often be omitted because the verb form (estou) indicates who’s speaking. So you can also say Estou cansado hoje. However, including Eu can add emphasis or clarity.

How would the pronunciation differ in Portugal vs. Brazil?

In European Portuguese (Portugal), the s sounds in estou can be slightly softer (more like sh), and the d in cansado might sound a bit more dental (almost like a light th for some speakers). In Brazil, estou might sound more like es-TOH and cansado with a somewhat clearer d. Both are correct; they just reflect regional accents.