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O caso preocupa o médico.

O caso preocupa o médico.
The case worries the doctor.
FromLesson 23inHardcore Portuguese (Portugal)
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Breakdown of O caso preocupa o médico.

preocupar
to worry
o médico
the doctor
o caso
the case

Questions & Answers about O caso preocupa o médico.

Why are there definite articles before caso and médico?
Portuguese usually requires definite articles (o, a, os, as) before common nouns, even when you’re speaking in general terms. So you say o caso and o médico rather than just caso or médico. This differs from English, where articles are often dropped before professions or abstract nouns.
Which word is the subject and which is the object in O caso preocupa o médico?
  • Subject: O caso (the case) – it’s performing the action of worrying.
  • Direct Object: o médico (the doctor) – he’s the one being worried.
    Portuguese follows a subject–verb–object order here, just like in English.
Why is there no preposition before o médico? In English we say "worry about someone."

In Portuguese you have two patterns:
1) Preocupar + direct object (transitive) – someone/something causes worry to someone else.
2) Preocupar-se com + object (reflexive) – someone worries about something.
Here we use the first pattern: O caso preocupa o médico (the case worries the doctor), so no preposition is needed.

Could we say O médico preocupa-se com o caso instead?
Yes. O médico preocupa-se com o caso means "the doctor is worried about the case." It uses the reflexive form preocupar-se com so the doctor is the subject worrying about the case, not the other way around.
How is preocupar conjugated in preocupa?
Preocupar is a regular -ar verb. The ending –a in preocupa marks third‐person singular present indicative, matching the singular subject o caso.
Can we replace o médico with a pronoun?

Yes. For a masculine singular noun you use o. In European Portuguese, the pronoun typically attaches to the verb (enclisis):
O caso preocupa-o.
Here preocupa-o = worries him/the doctor.

How would you express "the doctor is worried about the case" in Portuguese?

You’d use estar + adjective preocupado + preposition com:
O médico está preocupado com o caso.
This describes the doctor’s emotional state rather than saying the case causes worry.

Can we omit the definite article before caso or médico in this sentence?
Generally no. Omitting the article (caso preocupa médico) would sound ungrammatical or overly telegraphic in European Portuguese. The articles o are required here.

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