Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Ele diz que não é preguiçoso, mas deixa sempre tudo para amanhã. - He says he is not lazy, but he always leaves everything for tomorrow.

In European Portuguese, “Ele fala que não é preguiçoso” is possible but sounds less natural and more Brazilian-influenced. In Portugal, you would normally hear:

Ele diz que não é preguiçoso… ✅ (best)
Ele diz que não é preguiçoso, mas… ✅

Why do we need que after diz? Can we just say “Ele diz não é preguiçoso”?

You cannot drop que here.

Ele diz que não é preguiçoso… = He says *that he isn’t lazy…*

The que introduces a subordinate clause (what he is saying). In Portuguese, after verbs like dizer, achar, pensar, acreditar, you normally need que before a full sentence:

Ela acha que é fácil. – She thinks (that) it’s easy.
Eles acreditam que vai funcionar. – They believe (that) it will work.

So “Ele diz não é preguiçoso” is incorrect.
You must say: Ele diz que não é preguiçoso… ✅

How does negation work in não é preguiçoso? Why is não in front of é?

In Portuguese, the basic negation pattern is:

não + verb

So:

é preguiçoso – he is lazy
não é preguiçoso – he is not lazy

não always comes directly before the conjugated verb:

Ele não trabalha. – He doesn’t work.
Ela não gosta de café. – She doesn’t like coffee.
Nós não estamos prontos. – We are not ready.

So não é preguiçoso follows this standard pattern: não before é (the verb ser).

What’s the nuance of preguiçoso? Is it a permanent trait like “lazy”, or can it be temporary?

preguiçoso is an adjective that usually describes a character trait, like “lazy” in English:

Ele é preguiçoso. – He is (a) lazy (person).

For a temporary state (feeling lazy at the moment), Portuguese more often uses expressions with preguiça:

Estou com preguiça. – I’m feeling lazy.
Hoje estou muito preguiçoso. – Today I’m very lazy. (still possible, but sounds more like “in a lazy mood today”)

In this sentence, não é preguiçoso means he claims he isn’t a lazy person by nature.

Why is mas used here, and are there other ways to say “but” in European Portuguese?

mas is the most common and neutral word for “but”:

Ele diz que não é preguiçoso, mas… – He says he’s not lazy, but…

Other options exist, but they have different tones or are more formal/literary:

porém – however (more formal/written)
só que – it’s just that… / except that… (more spoken, a bit informal)
no entanto – however (formal, often written)

In everyday European Portuguese speech, mas is the default and best choice here.

What does deixa mean here? I thought deixar was mainly “to leave”.

deixar does mean “to leave”, but it has several related meanings. In this sentence it means:

deixar algo para amanhã = to leave something for tomorrow, i.e. to put it off / to postpone it

Other common uses of deixar:

To leave behind / abandon
- Deixei o casaco no carro. – I left the jacket in the car.
To let / allow
- Deixa-me falar. – Let me speak.
To stop doing something
- Deixou de fumar. – He stopped smoking.

Here, deixa sempre tudo para amanhã clearly has the “postpone / put off” meaning, describing procrastination.

Can the word order deixa sempre tudo be changed? For example, can I say “deixa tudo sempre para amanhã”?

The normal and most natural order is:

deixa sempre tudo para amanhã

Here sempre (always) usually comes between the verb and the object:

come sempre muito. – he always eats a lot
chega sempre tarde. – he always arrives late

You can sometimes move sempre around, but it starts to sound marked or unnatural, especially for learners. For this sentence:

deixa sempre tudo para amanhã ✅ natural, standard
deixa tudo sempre para amanhã ⚠️ possible in some contexts, but sounds odd or heavily stressed

As a learner, stick to verb + sempre + rest:
deixa sempre tudo para amanhã.

Why is para used in para amanhã? Could we say até amanhã instead?

para amanhã literally means “for tomorrow” and here carries the idea of postponing to a later time.

deixar (algo) para amanhã = to leave/put something off until tomorrow

até amanhã means “until tomorrow”, but has different typical uses:

Até amanhã! – See you tomorrow! (goodbye)
Fica aqui até amanhã. – It stays here until tomorrow.

If you use deixar até amanhã, it sounds more like to leave it like that right up to tomorrow, not the idiom of procrastinating.

For “put it off until tomorrow”, you really want deixar para amanhã.

Why is the present tense (diz, é, deixa) used, instead of a past tense like disse?

Portuguese, like English, uses the present tense to talk about habits, general truths, and typical behaviour:

Ele diz que não é preguiçoso… – He says he isn’t lazy (he says this in general / regularly)
…mas deixa sempre tudo para amanhã. – but he always leaves everything for tomorrow (habit)

If you said:

Ele disse que não era preguiçoso, mas deixou tudo para amanhã.

you’d be talking about one specific past situation, not his usual behaviour.

So the present here marks an ongoing, characteristic pattern.

Do we really need the subject Ele at the beginning, or could we drop it?

In Portuguese, the subject pronoun is often optional because the verb ending shows who the subject is. So you could also say:

Diz que não é preguiçoso, mas deixa sempre tudo para amanhã.

This is perfectly grammatical and quite natural in European Portuguese.

However, keeping Ele:

Ele diz que…

adds a bit of clarity and emphasis, especially if you’re just starting a story or contrasting different people. In isolation (as a single sentence), Ele helps make it clearer that you’re talking about “he”, not “I” or “they”.

So:

With “Ele” – slightly more explicit: He says that…
Without “Ele” – more typical of fluent, connected speech where the subject is already clear from context.