O pão está separado do bolo.

The bread is separate from the cake.

Breakdown of O pão está separado do bolo.

• o pão: the bread
• o bolo: the cake
• de: of
• estar: to be

Questions & Answers about O pão está separado do bolo.

Why is está used instead of é?

Portuguese has two verbs for “to be”: ser (é) and estar (está). Ser expresses permanent traits or identities (e.g. Ele é médico – “He is a doctor”), while estar describes temporary states or conditions. Here, being “separated” is a current condition of the bread, so we use estar.

Is separado here a past participle in a passive-voice construction or an adjective?

In O pão está separado do bolo, separado works as an adjective describing the state of the bread. A true passive with separar would normally use foi separado and, often, a “by”-phrase (por alguém). Since we want to say “the bread is (in the state of being) separated,” we use estar + adjectival past participle.

Why is separado masculine singular?

Adjectives (including past participles used adjectivally) agree in gender and number with the noun they modify. Pão is masculine singular, so separado ends in -o. If the subject were two loaves (masculine plural), you’d say os pães estão separados; if it were a feminine noun, you’d use -a or -as accordingly.

What does do stand for, and why don’t we write de o?