O Pedro está magoado no tornozelo depois de correr.

Breakdown of O Pedro está magoado no tornozelo depois de correr.

Pedro
Pedro
estar
to be
em
in
depois de
after
correr
to run
o tornozelo
the ankle
magoado
injured
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Questions & Answers about O Pedro está magoado no tornozelo depois de correr.

Why is there an O before Pedro? In English we don’t say “the Peter”.

In European Portuguese, it’s very common to use the definite article with people’s first names, especially in everyday speech.

  • O Pedro = Pedro (male)
  • A Maria = Maria (female)

It does not change the meaning; it’s more a stylistic/colloquial feature.
You can also say just Pedro está magoado…, especially in more formal writing or headlines. In everyday conversation in Portugal, O Pedro will sound more natural.

Why is it está magoado and not é magoado?

Portuguese has two verbs for to be: ser and estar.

  • estar is for temporary states/conditions (how someone is now)
  • ser is for permanent or defining characteristics

Being injured is a temporary condition, so you use estar:

  • O Pedro está magoado. = Pedro is hurt (right now).

    Using é magoado here would be wrong; it would sound like “being hurt” is a permanent characteristic, which doesn’t make sense. So this sentence must use está.

What exactly does magoado mean? How is it different from ferido or machucado?

magoado literally means hurt/injured. It can be:

  • Physical: bruised, strained, slightly injured
  • Emotional: hurt feelings (e.g. Ele está magoado contigo. = He’s hurt with you.)

In this sentence, it’s clearly physical because of no tornozelo (in the ankle).

Differences:

  • magoado – common, often less serious injury, or emotional hurt.
  • ferido – more like wounded / injured, often sounds more serious (accidents, violence, etc.).
  • machucado – very common in Brazilian Portuguese; in Portugal people understand it, but magoado or aleijado are more typical.

For a sprained/strained ankle after running, magoado no tornozelo is very natural in Portugal.

Does magoado agree with Pedro or with tornozelo?

magoado agrees with the subject (Pedro), not with the body part.

  • Subject: O Pedro → masculine singular
    magoado
  • If the subject were feminine:
    A Ana está magoada no tornozelo.

The body part (tornozelo) is inside a prepositional phrase (no tornozelo) and does not control the agreement of the adjective here.

Why is it no tornozelo and not something like o tornozelo or seu tornozelo?

no = em + o, so no tornozelo literally means “in the ankle” or “at the ankle”.

In Portuguese, for parts of the body, it is very common to use the definite article (and sometimes a preposition) instead of a possessive when it’s obvious whose body part it is:

  • O Pedro está magoado no tornozelo.
    = Pedro has hurt his ankle.
  • Lavei as mãos.
    = I washed my hands. (No “minhas” needed.)

You can say no seu tornozelo or no tornozelo dele, but it’s unnecessary here because it’s clear that it’s Pedro’s ankle.
In Portugal, no tornozelo is perfectly natural and often preferred for this kind of sentence.

What exactly does no mean in no tornozelo?

no is a contraction of the preposition em (in, on, at) + the masculine singular definite article o (the):

  • em + o = no
  • em + a = na
  • em + os = nos
  • em + as = nas

So:

  • no tornozelo = em + o tornozelo = in/on the ankle
  • na perna = in/on the leg
  • nos olhos = in the eyes
  • nas mãos = in/on the hands
Why is it depois de correr and not just depois correr or something like depois que correu?

The normal structure in European Portuguese is:

  • depois de + infinitive when it means after doing X

So:

  • depois de correr = after running
    (literally “after to run” – the infinitive)

depois correr (without de) is incorrect here.

depois que correu is more typical of Brazilian Portuguese. In Portugal, you would usually say:

  • depois de correr
  • or, with a full clause: depois de ele correr, depois de o Pedro correr

But in your sentence, because the subject is the same (Pedro), depois de correr is the most natural and concise.

Can I move depois de correr to another place in the sentence?

Yes. Word order is quite flexible with time expressions. These are all possible:

  • O Pedro está magoado no tornozelo depois de correr.
  • Depois de correr, o Pedro está magoado no tornozelo.
  • O Pedro, depois de correr, está magoado no tornozelo.

The original version (time phrase at the end) is very natural in speech.
Placing depois de correr at the beginning adds a little emphasis to the “after running” part, but the meaning stays the same.

Could I say something like O Pedro magoou o tornozelo instead? Is that different?

Yes, you can, and it changes the focus slightly.

  • O Pedro está magoado no tornozelo.
    Focus: Pedro’s current statehe is hurt in the ankle.

  • O Pedro magoou o tornozelo.
    Focus: the action/eventhe hurt his ankle.

Often you’ll see both combined for clarity:

  • O Pedro magoou o tornozelo a correr. Agora está magoado no tornozelo.
    = He hurt his ankle while running. Now his ankle is hurt.
How do you pronounce the main words in European Portuguese?

Very rough English-friendly approximations (not exact, but helpful):

  • O Pedro – roughly: oo PEH-droo
    (EP: [u ˈpeðɾu] or [u ˈpedɾu])
  • está – roughly: esh-TAH
    (EP: [ɨʃˈta])
  • magoado – roughly: muh-gwa-DU
    (EP: [mɐˈɡwadu])
  • tornozelo – roughly: tor-no-ZEH-loo
    (EP: [tuɾnuˈzelu])
  • depois – roughly: d’POYSH
    (EP: [dɨˈpo(j)ʃ])

Stress is in capital letters in the approximations.