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Questions & Answers about O carro está danificado.
What does carro mean?
Carro translates to car in English, referring to an automobile.
What does danificado mean?
Danificado means damaged. It indicates that something has sustained some form of damage or harm.
Why is the verb estar used instead of ser in this sentence?
In Portuguese, estar is used for temporary states or conditions. Since the sentence describes the car’s current, possibly changeable condition, estar is the appropriate choice rather than ser, which is reserved for permanent or defining characteristics.
What is the grammatical structure of O carro está danificado?
The sentence follows a Subject–Verb–Adjective pattern. O carro is the subject, where o is the masculine definite article; está is the third-person singular form of estar, and danificado is the adjective that describes the state of the car.
Would it be correct to say O carro é danificado instead?
No, it would not be correct. Using ser (as in é) implies a permanent quality, whereas danificado here describes a temporary condition. Therefore, the correct form to express that the car is currently damaged is O carro está danificado.
How would I say “My car is damaged” in Portuguese?
You would say Meu carro está danificado. Here, meu means my, and the sentence maintains the same structure: subject (carro), linking verb (está), and descriptive adjective (danificado).