Questions & Answers about Esse filme é muito engraçado.
Portuguese has three basic demonstratives:
- este – this (near the speaker)
- esse – that (near the listener or already mentioned in the conversation)
- aquele – that (far from both speaker and listener, or more distant in time/space)
Esse filme suggests “that film (you know which one I mean / the one we were just talking about / the one near you).”
You could also hear Este filme é muito engraçado in European Portuguese, especially if you’re literally holding the DVD or talking about a film that’s right here.
Aquele filme é muito engraçado would be “that film (over there / from a while ago / more distant in some sense).”
Filme is masculine: o filme (the film), um filme (a film).
Unfortunately, in Portuguese you often just have to learn the gender of each noun. Endings help sometimes, but:
- Nouns ending in -o are usually masculine.
- Nouns ending in -a are usually feminine.
- Nouns ending in -e (like filme) can be either masculine or feminine.
So you learn them with the article: o filme, os filmes (plural).
Adjectives in Portuguese agree with the noun in gender and number:
- Masculine singular: engraçado
- Feminine singular: engraçada
- Masculine plural: engraçados
- Feminine plural: engraçadas
Because filme is masculine singular, the adjective must be masculine singular too:
Esse filme é muito engraçado.
If it were feminine, you’d say, for example: Essa série é muito engraçada.
No. Esse is masculine, and essa is feminine:
- esse – masculine (used with masculine nouns like filme)
- essa – feminine (used with feminine nouns like série, história, comédia)
So you say:
- Esse filme é muito engraçado. (masculine)
- Essa série é muito engraçada. (feminine)
Portuguese has two verbs for “to be”: ser and estar.
- ser is used for more permanent, defining characteristics.
- estar is used for temporary states or conditions.
A film being “funny” is considered an inherent characteristic of the film, so you use ser:
Esse filme é muito engraçado.
Using estar with a film sounds strange in this context. You might use estar more naturally with people, for a temporary way of being:
O João hoje está muito engraçado. – “João is very funny today (today he’s behaving funnily).”
In this sentence muito is an adverb meaning “very”, and adverbs do not change form:
- Esse filme é muito engraçado.
- Esses filmes são muito engraçados.
It stays muito even with a plural: muito engraçados, not muitos engraçados.
Muito only changes form (muito / muita / muitos / muitas) when it is used before a noun with the meaning “much / many / a lot of”:
- muito dinheiro – a lot of money
- muitos filmes – many films
- muita gente – lots of people
- muitas comédias – many comedies
No. In Portuguese, muito meaning “very” normally comes before adjectives and adverbs:
- ✅ Esse filme é muito engraçado.
- ❌ Esse filme é engraçado muito. (incorrect)
If you want to emphasize the adjective at the end, you typically use a different word, such as:
- Esse filme é engraçado mesmo. – “That film is really funny.”
- Esse filme é mesmo engraçado. – also very natural in European Portuguese.
Approximate European Portuguese pronunciation (Lisbon standard) is:
- Esse – [ˈɛsɨ] (like “EH-suh”, with a very short final vowel)
- filme – [ˈfiɫmɨ] (the l is a “dark l”, similar to British “full”; final e is very short)
- é – [ɛ] (like English “eh”)
- muito – [ˈmũjtʊ] (first vowel is nasal; something like “MOYN-too” but shorter and more nasal)
- engraçado – [ẽɡɾɐˈsaðu]
- initial en- is nasal: [ẽ]
- -gra- has that central vowel [ɐ], not a full “ah”
- final -do in European Portuguese sounds like [du], often with the o very reduced.
Said naturally, it flows as: “Ês-sɨ FIɫ-mɨ ɛ MŨY-tʊ ẽ-gɾɐ-SÁ-du.”
Engraçado most commonly means “funny / amusing”, like something that makes you laugh.
Depending on context, it can also mean:
- odd / strange / peculiar
- Que história engraçada… – “What a funny/odd story…”
- cute / endearing (especially with children or animals)
- O bebé é tão engraçado. – “The baby is so cute/funny.”
Tone and context decide whether it’s positive “funny/amusing”, “weird”, or “kind of cute.” In Esse filme é muito engraçado, the default reading is “very funny / really amusing.”
In European Portuguese:
- engraçado – funny, humorous, sometimes “odd/peculiar”.
- divertido – fun, entertaining, enjoyable (may or may not mean “laugh-out-loud funny”).
- giro – (EP) nice, cool, cute, sometimes mildly funny; very common in Portugal.
- fixe – (EP) cool, great, awesome (informal).
For a film:
- Esse filme é muito engraçado. – “That film is very funny.”
- Esse filme é muito divertido. – “That film is a lot of fun / very entertaining.”
- Esse filme é muito giro. – “That film is really nice/cool.”
- Esse filme é mesmo fixe. – “That film is really cool.” (informal)
Yes. Both are correct, but they’re used slightly differently:
Esse filme é muito engraçado.
Emphasizes “that particular film” – the one you and I have in mind, or near you, or that we just mentioned.O filme é muito engraçado.
More neutral; you’d say this if it’s already clear from context which film you’re talking about (for example, in a review, when it’s obvious).
So omitting esse is fine when the specific film is already established in the conversation or text.
Yes. Just like in English, muito engraçado can be sincere or sarcastic, depending on tone and context.
- (Sincere) Esse filme é muito engraçado. – “That film is really funny.”
- (Sarcastic) Someone makes an annoying joke:
Muito engraçado… – “Very funny…” (meaning “not funny at all”).
In writing, you often need context to see if it’s ironic, but in speech the intonation makes it clear.