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Questions & Answers about Eu visito a casa da Ana.
What does Eu mean in this sentence?
Eu is the subject pronoun that translates to "I" in English, indicating that the speaker is the one doing the visiting.
How is the verb visito conjugated, and what is its meaning?
Visito is the first-person singular present indicative form of the verb visitar, which means "to visit." It shows that the speaker (I) is currently or habitually visiting someone or someplace.
Why is the definite article a used before casa?
In Portuguese, nouns typically require a definite article when referring to a specific object. Here, a casa translates to "the house," emphasizing that it refers to a particular house—specifically, Ana’s house.
How does the phrase da Ana indicate possession?
The phrase da Ana is formed by contracting de (meaning "of") with the feminine definite article a (meaning "the"), resulting in da. Thus, a casa da Ana literally translates to "the house of Ana," which is equivalent to "Ana's house" in English.
How does this possession structure in Portuguese compare to the one used in English?
In English, possession is commonly expressed by adding 's to a noun (ex: Ana's house). In Portuguese, instead of using an apostrophe, possession is shown by using the preposition de combined with the definite article as a contraction (da for feminine nouns and do for masculine nouns). This means a casa da Ana directly translates to "the house of Ana," reflecting a key structural difference between the two languages.