O Pedro sobe o degrau com cuidado.

Pedro climbs the step carefully.

Breakdown of O Pedro sobe o degrau com cuidado.

• Pedro: Pedro
• com cuidado: carefully
• subir: to climb
• o degrau: the step

Questions & Answers about O Pedro sobe o degrau com cuidado.

What does the definite article O before Pedro indicate in this sentence?

In Portuguese (Portugal), it is common to use a definite article before proper names. Here, O Pedro simply means “Pedro.” This usage is a standard grammatical feature in European Portuguese and doesn’t add extra meaning—it just reflects the typical way names are used in the language.

What is the meaning of the verb sobe?

Sobe is the third-person singular form of the verb subir, which means “to go up” or “to climb.” In this sentence, it indicates that Pedro is ascending or climbing upward.

What does the noun degrau mean, and why is it in the singular form?

Degrau translates to “step” in English, referring to a single step on a staircase. The singular form shows that Pedro is stepping onto one specific step rather than multiple steps.

How does the phrase com cuidado function within the sentence?

The phrase com cuidado means “with care” or “carefully.” It acts as an adverbial phrase, modifying the verb sobe by describing the manner in which Pedro is climbing—he is doing so cautiously.

How does the structure of this Portuguese sentence compare to typical English sentence structure?

The sentence "O Pedro sobe o degrau com cuidado." follows a structure similar to English: it has a subject (O Pedro), a verb (sobe), an object (o degrau), and an adverbial phrase (com cuidado) that describes how the action is performed. This is analogous to the English sentence “Pedro goes up the step with care.”

If Pedro were climbing multiple steps instead of just one, how would the sentence change?

To express that Pedro is climbing several steps, you would change degrau to its plural form degraus and adjust the article from o to os. The revised sentence would be: "O Pedro sobe os degraus com cuidado."