Breakdown of Preciso de uma faca afiada para cortar o pão.
eu
I
o pão
the bread
precisar de
to need
para
to
uma
a
cortar
to cut
a faca
the knife
afiado
sharp
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Questions & Answers about Preciso de uma faca afiada para cortar o pão.
Why is there a de after preciso?
In Portuguese, the verb precisar takes the preposition de when its object is a noun or noun phrase. So you always say precisar de algo (“to need something”). Here uma faca afiada is the noun phrase, hence preciso de uma faca afiada translates literally to “I need of a sharp knife,” but idiomatically “I need a sharp knife.”
Could I omit the indefinite article and say preciso de faca afiada?
No. With countable nouns in Portuguese you normally require an article or another determiner. Omitting uma would sound ungrammatical. You must say preciso de uma faca afiada. (You could replace uma with another determiner—essa, minha, tal, etc.—but not drop it entirely.)
Why is para used before cortar? Could it be de cortar or nothing at all?
Para + infinitive expresses purpose (“in order to”). You need para here to link the need for the knife with the action you intend: para cortar o pão (“to cut the bread”). You cannot use de for this purpose clause (that’s reserved for nominal complements of precisar), and you can’t just attach the infinitive without a preposition.
Why is the adjective afiada placed after faca, not before it?
In Portuguese, descriptive adjectives typically follow the noun: uma faca afiada. Putting the adjective before the noun (e.g. afiada faca) is unusual in everyday speech and can sound poetic or emphatic. Standard word order is noun + adjective.
Why is it spelled afiada (one l) rather than like the Spanish afilada?
Portuguese derives this word from the verb afiar, spelled A-F-I-A-R, so its past participle/adjective is afiado/afiada. Spanish uses an extra “l” in afilar/afilada, but Portuguese dropped that “l” centuries ago. Be careful not to transfer the Spanish spelling directly.
Could I use pra instead of para here?
Pra is a colloquial contraction of para common in Brazilian Portuguese, especially in informal speech. In Portugal, pra is rarely used and considered non-standard. In European Portuguese you should pronounce and write para.
Why is there a definite article o before pão? Can it be left out?
Using o pão specifies a particular loaf of bread (for example, the one on the table). If you say para cortar pão without the article, it sounds generic—“to cut bread in general.” Both are grammatically possible, but o pão makes it clear you mean the specific bread at hand.
Why doesn’t the sentence include eu or some helper pronoun before cortar (for example, para eu cortar o pão)?
The infinitive cortar here has an implied subject that’s the same person as the main clause’s subject (eu). In Portuguese you normally omit an explicit pronoun when the subject of the infinitive is obvious. You could say para eu cortar o pão for emphasis or contrast, but it’s not necessary in everyday speech.