Breakdown of O caderno está dentro da gaveta.
Questions & Answers about O caderno está dentro da gaveta.
Portuguese almost always uses definite articles (o, a, os, as) before nouns when you refer to something specific.
- O is the masculine singular definite article, equivalent to English the.
- If you said Um caderno está dentro da gaveta, you’d be introducing “a notebook” for the first time (indefinite).
- With O caderno, you’re talking about the particular notebook you have in mind.
In Portuguese, nouns ending in -o are usually masculine, though there are exceptions. You can tell by:
- Ending: Most nouns ending in -o are masculine (caderno, livro, carro).
- Article agreement: You say o caderno (not a caderno).
- Plural: Masculine nouns take -os in the plural (os cadernos).
It’s often a matter of memorization and exposure to patterns.
Da is a contraction of the preposition de (“of” or “from”) + the feminine singular definite article a.
- de
- a → da
- So dentro da gaveta literally means “inside of the drawer,” with a gaveta being “the drawer.”
- em / na = “in,” “on,” or “at” generally; na = em
- a.
dentro de = “inside (of)” with a stronger idea of being enclosed.
Examples:
• O caderno está na gaveta.
(The notebook is in the drawer.)
• O caderno está dentro da gaveta.
(The notebook is inside the drawer—not just in the area of the drawer but fully enclosed.)
In many contexts they’re interchangeable, but dentro de emphasizes the object is fully inside.
Portuguese uses estar to talk about:
- Location (where something or someone is).
- Temporary states or conditions.
Ser is for permanent traits, identity, origin, time, etc.
Since you’re describing where the notebook is right now, you use está (3rd person singular of estar).
Yes. You can invert the order to emphasize where first:
• Dentro da gaveta está o caderno.
This sounds correct and is often used for stylistic or emphatic reasons. The meaning stays the same.
You adjust both noun and article to plural:
• Os cadernos estão dentro das gavetas.
- Os = plural masculine definite article
- cadernos = notebooks
- estão = 3rd person plural of estar
- das = de
- as (feminine plural)
- gavetas = drawers
No. In Portuguese you normally cannot drop the definite article before a singular countable noun in this context.
- Dentro de gaveta sounds unnatural and is grammatically incorrect.
You need dentro de plus the correct article (da for feminine singular).