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Ligaram o aquecedor da loja porque o ar ficou gelado.

Ligaram o aquecedor da loja porque o ar ficou gelado.
They turned on the store's heater because the air became icy.
FromLesson 29inHardcore Portuguese (Portugal)

Questions & Answers about Ligaram o aquecedor da loja porque o ar ficou gelado.

What does ligaram mean?
ligaram is the third person plural in the Portuguese preterite (pretérito perfeito) of ligar, which means to turn on. So it translates as they turned on.
Why isn’t there an explicit subject pronoun before ligaram?
Portuguese often omits subject pronouns because verb endings mark person and number. The suffix -aram already tells you it’s they, so adding eles is redundant.
What does o aquecedor da loja literally mean, and why is da used?
O aquecedor means the heater. Da is the contraction of de + a, so o aquecedor da loja literally means the heater of the store or the store’s heater.
Why does the sentence include o before ar in o ar ficou gelado?
In Portuguese, many common nouns, including ar (“air”), usually take a definite article. Since ar is masculine, you say o ar, meaning the air.
What does ficou gelado mean, and why is ficar used here?
Ficou is the preterite of ficar, which in this context means to become. Gelado is the adjective cold/frozen. Together, ficou gelado means became cold.
Could you replace ficou gelado with esfriou?
Yes. The verb esfriar in the preterite is esfriou, meaning it cooled down or it got cold. You could say o ar esfriou to convey the same idea.
Why is gelado in the masculine singular form?
Adjectives in Portuguese agree in gender and number with the noun they modify. Since ar is a singular masculine noun, the adjective takes the masculine singular ending: gelado.
Why is porque written as one word instead of two?
Porque is a subordinating conjunction meaning because, used to introduce a clause of cause. It’s one word when linking clauses. Two-word forms like por que or por quê serve different functions in questions or fixed expressions.
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