Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Cada quarto está decorado com fotografias antigas. - Each room is decorated with old photographs.

Cada translates as each. It’s used with a singular noun to indicate every individual item separately (i.e. each room, not all rooms together).

Why is quarto singular after cada instead of plural?

After cada, the noun always stays singular because cada emphasizes individuality. Saying cada quartos would be ungrammatical.

Why is estar (está) used here instead of ser?

Portuguese uses estar to express states or conditions. Está decorado describes the current state of the room (it’s in a decorated condition). If you used ser, you’d form a passive voice emphasizing the action (“the rooms are decorated,” habitually or by someone), not the resulting state.

Is decorado a verb form or an adjective? How does it function?

Decorado is the past participle of decorar, but here it functions like an adjective describing the state of the room (“decorated”). Combined with estar, it behaves like a “resultative” adjective rather than an active verb form.

Why is the preposition com used before fotografias antigas?

Com means with. It introduces what the rooms are decorated with—instruments or elements used in the decoration (old photographs).

Why is antigas placed after fotografias?

In Portuguese, the normal noun-adjective order places most adjectives after the noun. So fotografias antigas follows the standard pattern.

Could I say Cada quarto está decorado com velhas fotografias instead?

You can, but velhas fotografias often feels more colloquial and can imply “worn-out” or in poor condition. Fotografias antigas is more neutral, often suggesting “historical” or simply “old.”

Could I rewrite it as Cada quarto foi decorado com fotografias antigas?

Yes. Foi decorado (pretérito perfeito) emphasizes the action of decorating in the past. Está decorado highlights the present result or state of that action.