Breakdown of A poluição na cidade preocupa quem gosta de um ambiente limpo.
um
a
gostar de
to like
a cidade
the city
em
in
preocupar
to worry
limpo
clean
o ambiente
the environment
quem
who
a poluição
the pollution
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Questions & Answers about A poluição na cidade preocupa quem gosta de um ambiente limpo.
What is the subject of preocupa and why is the verb in third person singular?
The subject is A poluição, a feminine singular noun. In Portuguese, verbs agree with their subjects in person and number, so preocupa is the present-indicative, third-person singular form of preocupar.
What does na cidade mean and why is na written as one word?
na is the contraction of em + a, meaning in the. Thus na cidade translates as in the city. Portuguese routinely contracts prepositions with definite articles (em + o → no; em + a → na).
What role does quem play in the sentence?
Here quem introduces a relative clause and functions like those who or people who in English. It refers back to the unspecified people who enjoy a clean environment.
Why is there a de before um ambiente limpo in gosta de um ambiente limpo?
The verb gostar requires the preposition de before its object. So the pattern is gostar de algo (to like something). You cannot say gostar algo without de.
Why does the adjective limpo come after the noun ambiente, unlike in English?
In Portuguese, descriptive adjectives normally follow the noun they modify. Therefore ambiente limpo literally follows the order noun + adjective, whereas English typically uses adjective + noun.
Why is there a definite article before poluição, but an indefinite article before ambiente?
Portuguese often uses the definite article with abstract or general concepts—hence a poluição (pollution in general). The indefinite article um before ambiente indicates any clean environment, not a specific one.
Could we use the reflexive form preocupa-se instead of preocupa?
No. Preocupar-se means to worry oneself (i.e. the subject worries about something personally). In this sentence, preocupar is transitive: A poluição preocupa alguém (pollution worries someone). There’s no reflexive meaning, so you don’t use se.