O casaco ficou preso na porta.

The coat got stuck in the door.

Breakdown of O casaco ficou preso na porta.

• em: in
• a porta: the door
• ficar: to become
• o casaco: the coat
• preso: stuck

Questions & Answers about O casaco ficou preso na porta.

What does the verb choice ficou (from ficar) add compared with using estar?

Ficar + past participle/adjective expresses a change of state and its result, roughly “to get/end up.” So ficou preso ≈ “got stuck/ended up stuck.”
Using estar would simply describe the state: estava/está preso = “was/is stuck,” without focusing on the moment it happened.
Example: “When the door closed, the coat got stuck” = Quando a porta fechou, o casaco ficou preso. “A few minutes later it was still stuck” = Uns minutos depois, o casaco ainda estava preso.

Why is it preso and not prendido? Are both correct?

Portuguese has two participles for prender: the irregular preso and the regular prendido.

• As an adjective or with the verbs ser/estar/ficar, the standard choice is the irregular form: ficar/estar/ser preso.
• With compound tenses using ter or haver, the regular participle is preferred: tinha prendido o casaco (“had caught/fastened the coat”).
  So here, ficou preso is the idiomatic form. Using ficou prendido is possible in some varieties but is not the preferred standard in European Portuguese.

Why is preso masculine singular? How does agreement work?

Past participles used adjectivally agree with the noun they describe. Casaco is masculine singular, so preso is masculine singular.

• Feminine singular: A saia ficou presa.
• Masculine plural: Os casacos ficaram presos.
• Feminine plural: As saias ficaram presas.

What does na in na porta mean?

Na = em + a (“in/on/at the”). Because porta is feminine singular (a porta), em + a contracts to na. So na porta = “in/on the door.”
Contractions you’ll see: no (em + o), nas (em + as), nos (em + os).

Is there a difference between na porta and à porta?

Yes:

• Na porta focuses on physical contact/position: “in/on the door” (caught by the door panels/jamb). That’s what you want here.
• À porta (crasis of a + a) means “at/by the door” as a location: Há alguém à porta (“Someone is at the door”). You wouldn’t use à porta to say the coat got caught by the door.

Why the definite article O in O casaco? Could I say Um casaco or drop the article?

• O casaco = a specific, known coat (natural in Portuguese when the referent is identifiable from context).
• Um casaco = an unspecified coat (“a coat”), fine if you’re introducing it with no prior context.
• Dropping the article (just Casaco ficou preso…) is unidiomatic in this context in European Portuguese.

Could I say O casaco foi preso na porta?

Avoid that. Foi preso usually means “was arrested” when the subject is a person. With an object, it sounds odd or confusing.
Use ficou preso (got stuck) or the reflexive verb: O casaco prendeu-se na porta (“the coat got caught in the door”).

What’s the difference between ficou preso, prendeu-se, and ficou entalado?

All can work; nuances:

• Ficou preso: neutral, result-of-event feel (“ended up stuck”).
• Prendeu-se: eventive, highlights the catching action (“got itself caught”). Very common in EP.
• Ficou entalado: “got wedged/pinched.” Frequent with doors and body parts; fine for objects too.
  Colloquial option: ficou enganchado (“got hooked/snagged”), also used in EP.

How would different tenses change the meaning?

• Ficou preso: got stuck (single past event).
• Ficava preso: used to/kept getting stuck (habitual or ongoing in the past).
• Tinha ficado preso: had gotten stuck (past before another past).
• Ficará preso: will be/get stuck (future).
• Tem ficado preso: has been getting stuck (repeatedly up to now).

Is the word order fixed, or can I move things around?

The neutral order is Subject–Verb–Complement/Predicate: O casaco ficou preso na porta.
Fronting na porta for emphasis/topic is possible: Na porta, o casaco ficou preso (marked, more formal/written).
For strong focus on the subject, EP often uses a cleft: Foi o casaco que ficou preso na porta.
But O casaco na porta ficou preso sounds unnatural.

Should I specify the kind of door, like “car door”?

If context doesn’t make it clear, add a de-phrase:

• na porta do carro (car door)
• na porta do armário (cupboard door)
  Remember the contractions: de + o = do, de + a = da, de + os = dos, de + as = das.

Any pronunciation tips for European Portuguese here?

• O casaco: ca-ZA-co (the single s between vowels sounds like [z]).
• ficou: fi-COH (the diphthong ou is a close “oh”; stress on the last syllable).
• preso: PREH-zo (s between vowels = [z]).
• porta: PÓR-ta (single r is a flap [ɾ]; the first o is open [ɔ]).
  Linking and vowel reduction in EP may make unstressed vowels quite short/weak.