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O Pedro está atrás de Maria na fotografia.

O Pedro está atrás de Maria na fotografia.
Pedro is behind Maria in the photograph.
FromLesson 32inHardcore Portuguese (Portugal)

Breakdown of O Pedro está atrás de Maria na fotografia.

Pedro
Pedro
Maria
Maria
estar
to be
em
in
a fotografia
the photograph
atrás de
behind

Questions & Answers about O Pedro está atrás de Maria na fotografia.

Why does the sentence start with O Pedro instead of just Pedro?
In European Portuguese it’s very common to place the definite article before a person’s name. So O Pedro literally means the Pedro, but in practice it’s just how people refer to friends or acquaintances. It’s not mandatory, but it sounds natural. In Brazilian Portuguese you’ll more often hear Pedro está atrás de Maria na fotografia, without the article.
Why is está used here? Could we use é or ficar?

Está comes from the verb estar, which we use for temporary states and locations. Since we’re describing where Pedro is in the photo, we use estar.

  • É (from ser) would be wrong for location.
  • Ficar can describe where something is located (e.g. O restaurante fica na rua X), but for people’s positions in photos, estar is far more idiomatic. Saying Pedro fica atrás de Maria na fotografia would sound awkward.
What does atrás de mean? Is the de always necessary?

atrás means behind, and when you want to say behind something or someone, you always add the preposition de:
 • atrás de Maria = “behind Maria”
You cannot drop de—Pedro está atrás Maria is ungrammatical. The pattern is always atrás de + noun/pronoun.

Why atrás de Maria and not atrás da Maria?

You only contract de + o/a when the following noun has its own article. With a proper name like Maria, we normally don’t use an article there, so it stays de Maria. If you had a common noun with an article, you would contract:
 • atrás da casa = “behind the house”
But for Maria, there’s no article, so it stays atrás de Maria.

What’s the difference between atrás de and por trás de?
  • atrás de describes a straightforward, visible position behind someone or something (as in a photo).
  • por trás de often implies “behind” in a more hidden or figurative sense, e.g. por trás de um segredo (“behind a secret,” “underlying”).
    You wouldn’t use por trás de for a simple spatial relation in a picture.
What is the contraction na in na fotografia?

na = em + a.

  • em means “in/on.”
  • a is the feminine singular definite article “the.”
    So na fotografia literally means “in the photograph.”
Could I say na foto instead of na fotografia?

Yes. foto is the colloquial, shortened form of fotografia. Both are correct, and most people say na foto in everyday speech:
 • O Pedro está atrás de Maria na foto.

Would a Brazilian speaker say this sentence differently?

Typically, yes:

  • Brazilians usually drop the article before names: Pedro instead of O Pedro.
  • They also favor foto over fotografia in casual contexts.
    You’d likely hear: Pedro está atrás de Maria na foto.
Can I reorder the sentence to Na fotografia, o Pedro está atrás de Maria?

Absolutely. Moving na fotografia to the front is perfectly grammatical and simply shifts the emphasis to the setting:
 • Na fotografia, o Pedro está atrás de Maria.

Can I also say Atrás de Maria está o Pedro?

Yes, you can. Placing atrás de Maria at the start topicalizes that phrase. It’s less neutral and more emphatic or stylistic, but still correct:
 • Atrás de Maria está o Pedro.

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