Breakdown of O voluntário recolhe os resíduos no parque.
em
in
o parque
the park
o resíduo
the waste
o voluntário
the volunteer
recolher
to collect
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Questions & Answers about O voluntário recolhe os resíduos no parque.
Why does the sentence start with O voluntário instead of just Voluntário or Um voluntário?
Using O (the definite article) specifies “the volunteer” – a particular person. In Portuguese it’s common to put the definite article before a noun, especially when you mean someone specific. If you said Um voluntário recolhe… it would mean “A volunteer collects…”, implying any volunteer rather than a known one. Simply saying Voluntário recolhe… without an article sounds incomplete in European Portuguese (though you can drop articles in headlines or very informal contexts).
Why is the verb recolhe in the simple present rather than a continuous form like “is collecting”?
Portuguese generally uses the simple present (recolhe) to express both habitual actions and current ones. To emphasize that the action is happening right now in Portugal, you would say está a recolher (PT-PT). In Brazilian Portuguese you’d hear está recolhendo, but in Portugal you rarely use the gerund that way.
What role does os play before resíduos?
Os is the masculine plural definite article (“the”). Portuguese often uses definite articles with plural nouns to talk about them in general. In English we say “waste” or “trash” without an article, but in Portuguese you normally say os resíduos to mean “the waste” (in general).
What does resíduos mean? Are there other words for “waste” or “trash”?
Resíduos literally means “residues” or “waste”, often used in environmental contexts (recycling, hazardous waste). A more everyday word for household garbage is lixo. You might also see detritos for “debris” or restos for “leftovers” (food, material scraps).
Why is it no parque and not em o parque or na parque?
No is the contraction of em + o (“in the” for masculine nouns). Parque is masculine, so em o parque merges to no parque. You would use na (em + a) only with feminine nouns: na escola, na praia, etc.
Could I use a different verb instead of recolher here?
Yes, you might hear apanhar (“pick up”) or juntar (“gather”), but recolher is the standard term for “collecting” waste in European Portuguese. Coletar also exists but is far more common in Brazilian Portuguese.
How is recolher conjugated in the present tense?
It’s a regular -er verb with a spelling change in the first person singular:
eu recolho
tu recolhes
ele/ela/você recolhe
nós recolhemos
vós recolheis
eles/elas/vocês recolhem