Os bilhetes para o concerto estão esgotados.

The tickets for the concert are sold out.

Breakdown of Os bilhetes para o concerto estão esgotados.

• estar: to be
• para: for
• o bilhete: the ticket
• o concerto: the concert
• esgotado: sold out

Questions & Answers about Os bilhetes para o concerto estão esgotados.

Why is there a definite article os before bilhetes?

Portuguese almost always uses definite articles with countable nouns in general statements. Here, os bilhetes means “the tickets” (i.e. specific tickets for that concert). In English you can say “tickets for the concert are sold out,” dropping “the,” but in Portuguese you usually keep os.

Why is bilhetes masculine plural, and why does esgotados agree with it?

– bilhetes is the plural of bilhete, which is a masculine noun.
– Adjectives and past participles acting as adjectives must agree in gender and number with the noun they modify.
– Thus esgotados is masculine plural to match os bilhetes. If you were talking about as entradas (feminine plural), you’d say estão esgotadas.

Why do we use para o concerto instead of de o concerto or do concerto?

– para expresses purpose or destination (“for the concert”).
– If you used do concerto (contraction of de + o), that would literally be “of the concert” or “belonging to the concert,” but it’s also quite common: os bilhetes do concerto estão esgotados is perfectly natural.
– Saying bilhetes de o concerto is ungrammatical; you must contract to do: bilhetes do concerto.

Why is the verb estar (estão) used here, instead of ser (são)?

Portuguese uses estar for temporary states or conditions. Being “sold out” is a temporary state of the tickets. If you said são esgotados, it would imply an inherent characteristic (which doesn’t make sense here).

What exactly does esgotados mean? Couldn’t we use vendidos instead?

– esgotados comes from esgotar-se, meaning “to be exhausted, to run out.” In this context it means “sold out” (nothing left).
– vendidos means “sold” (they have been sold), but doesn’t necessarily imply that there are zero tickets remaining right now. Esgotados is the standard way to say “there are no more.”

Can I rephrase it more casually in European Portuguese?

Yes, there are a few informal alternatives:
• Já não há bilhetes para o concerto. (“There aren’t any tickets left for the concert.”)
• Os bilhetes já se esgotaram. (Using the pronominal verb esgotar-se: “The tickets have already sold out.”)

Is there a difference in Brazilian Portuguese?

– In Brazil, ingressos is more common than bilhetes for concert tickets. You’d often hear os ingressos para o show estão esgotados.
– Otherwise, the structure (estão esgotados) is exactly the same.

How do you pronounce bilhetes in European Portuguese?

Approximate IPA: /biˈʎe.tɨʃ/
• b as in English “bat”
• ilh as the palatal “lh” sound, similar to the “lli” in Italian “figlio”
• final es pronounced /ɨʃ/, a close central unrounded vowel + “sh” sound.