Questions & Answers about O pão está cortado.
Why is está used here instead of é?
Is O pão está cortado a passive‐voice sentence?
Not in the same way English “The bread is cut” can be a true passive. In Portuguese this is a stative or resultative construction:
- está
- past participle = describes the resulting state.
You could call it a “pseudo‐passive,” but it doesn’t focus on who did the cutting—only on the fact that the bread is now cut.
- past participle = describes the resulting state.
Is cortado acting as an adjective or a past participle here?
How would I say “the breads are cut”?
You make both article and participle agree in number:
• Singular: o pão está cortado
• Plural: os pães estão cortados
Notice os instead of o and cortados instead of cortado.
Could I say O pão é cortado? What’s the difference?
What about O pão foi cortado? When do I use that?
Foi cortado is the compound past passive (“was cut”). Use it when you want to emphasize the action happened in the past and is completed, e.g.:
• “O pão foi cortado ontem.”
It tells when it was cut, whereas está cortado only tells you its current condition.
Why is there a definite article o before pão?
How do you pronounce pão, especially the ão sound?
The ão in European Portuguese is a nasal diphthong, roughly [ɐ̃w̃]. You can think of it like starting with an “uh” sound while letting air escape through your nose, then gliding to a “w.” Try:
• “pah” + nasal hold + “w”
It’s not exactly the English “ow” but close if you nasalize it.
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