Breakdown of O tio da Sofia está ansioso por conhecer o seu neto, que nasceu há poucos dias.
o dia
the day
de
of
estar
to be
pouco
few
que
who
seu
his
o tio
the uncle
o neto
the grandson
Sofia
Sofia
ansioso
eager
nascer
to be born
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Questions & Answers about O tio da Sofia está ansioso por conhecer o seu neto, que nasceu há poucos dias.
What does the expression ansioso por conhecer mean, and why is the preposition por used?
In this sentence, ansioso means eager (or feeling keenly anticipatory), and ansioso por conhecer translates to eager to meet or looking forward to getting to know someone. The preposition por is used because it’s the conventional way in Portuguese to link emotions or states of anticipation with an action expressed by an infinitive, similar to saying “eager for” in English.
Can conhecer be directly translated as "to know"? Why is conhecer used here instead of another verb?
While conhecer can mean "to know" in some contexts, in this sentence it specifically means to meet or to get acquainted with someone for the first time. This is distinct from saber, which means "to know" in the sense of having information. Therefore, conhecer is chosen here because it best conveys the idea of meeting someone new.
What does neto mean, and how would you refer to a granddaughter in similar contexts?
The word neto means grandson. If you wish to refer to a granddaughter, you would use neta. These terms are gender-specific in Portuguese, with neto being masculine and neta feminine.
Why does the sentence say há poucos dias instead of using a structure like faz poucos dias?
In Portuguese, há is used to indicate time elapsed, much like the word "ago" in English, so há poucos dias means a few days ago. Although faz is used in some contexts to express the passage of time, há is the more conventional choice in written and formal European Portuguese for this construction.
What is the role of the relative pronoun que in the clause que nasceu há poucos dias?
The pronoun que introduces the relative clause que nasceu há poucos dias, which gives additional information about o seu neto. In this instance, que functions like "who" or "that" in English, linking the description (“was born a few days ago”) directly to the noun it qualifies.
Why is O tio da Sofia used instead of O tio de Sofia in Portuguese?
In Portuguese, the phrase da Sofia is a contraction of de + a Sofia and is the standard way to indicate possession or a relationship. Thus, O tio da Sofia is the idiomatic equivalent of saying "Sofia's uncle" in English.
Who does the possessive seu refer to in o seu neto?
In this sentence, seu clearly refers back to o tio da Sofia—it indicates that the grandson in question is the uncle’s grandson. Although seu might sometimes be ambiguous in Portuguese (it can mean "his," "her," or even "your" depending on context), here the context makes it evident that it refers to the uncle.