Breakdown of A Ana quer cuidar de um gato.
Questions & Answers about A Ana quer cuidar de um gato.
In European Portuguese, it is very common to use the definite article before a person’s name:
- a Ana = Ana (female)
- o João = João (male)
It doesn’t usually add a special meaning; it’s just the natural way people talk in Portugal.
In Brazilian Portuguese, the article is often left out, so you more often see Ana quer… there.
In European Portuguese, in a normal sentence as the subject, A Ana quer cuidar de um gato sounds more natural than Ana quer cuidar de um gato.
Yes, it’s grammatically correct, but in Portugal it sounds:
- more formal,
- more written than spoken,
- or a bit influenced by Brazilian Portuguese.
In everyday European Portuguese speech, A Ana quer cuidar de um gato is more typical.
Yes:
- A Ana quer cuidar de um gato. = Ela quer cuidar de um gato.
(if it’s already clear from context who ela refers to)
Portuguese often drops subject pronouns when the subject is obvious from context or the verb ending. You can use:
- A Ana quer cuidar de um gato.
- Ela quer cuidar de um gato.
- Just Quer cuidar de um gato. (if it’s clear we’re talking about Ana)
You wouldn’t normally say A Ana ela quer… in standard usage (that only appears in very colloquial or emphatic speech).
Querer is the infinitive form: to want.
In the sentence, the verb is conjugated for Ana (3rd person singular, present):
- eu quero – I want
- tu queres – you (singular, informal) want
- ele / ela / você quer – he / she / you (formal) wants
- nós queremos – we want
- vocês / eles / elas querem – you (pl.) / they want
Since Ana = ela, we use quer:
- A Ana quer… = Ana wants…
After quer (and many other verbs of desire, plan, etc.), Portuguese uses another verb in the infinitive form:
- quer + infinitive
So you say:
- A Ana quer cuidar de um gato. – Ana wants to take care of a cat.
- A Ana quer comer. – Ana wants to eat.
- A Ana quer viajar. – Ana wants to travel.
If you said A Ana quer cuida, it would be incorrect.
Quer is conjugated; cuidar stays in the infinitive.
In the sense of to take care of / look after, cuidar almost always needs the preposition de:
- cuidar de um gato – to take care of a cat
- cuidar dos pais – to take care of (one’s) parents
- cuidar de crianças – to look after children
So you should learn it as a fixed pattern:
- cuidar de + [person/thing]
Without de, cuidar is either incorrect in this sense or has a different, rarer meaning (like to think/consider that, in structures such as cuidar que…).
Yes, in Portuguese:
- de + um → dum
- de + uma → duma
So cuidar de um gato can theoretically become cuidar dum gato.
In practice:
- In modern European Portuguese, dum / duma is understood and used, but sounds a bit more literary or formal in writing.
- In everyday speech, people often pronounce something very close to dum ([dũ]), but usually write de um.
- In Brazilian Portuguese, dum / duma is much less common.
As a learner, it’s safest (and perfectly natural) to stick to de um / de uma in writing.
This is the difference between indefinite and definite articles:
- um gato = a cat / some cat – not specified, any cat
- o gato = the cat – a specific cat that speaker and listener can identify
So:
A Ana quer cuidar de um gato.
Ana wants to take care of a (non-specific) cat – we don’t know which one.A Ana quer cuidar do gato. (de + o = do)
Ana wants to take care of the cat – a specific cat we already know about (for example, the neighbor’s cat we were just talking about).
Portuguese nouns have grammatical gender, and articles must agree with that gender:
- gato is masculine → um gato, o gato
- The feminine form is gata → uma gata, a gata
So:
- um gato – a (male or generic) cat
- uma gata – a female cat
Adjectives also agree:
- um gato preto – a black (male) cat
- uma gata preta – a black (female) cat
In normal speech and writing, no. The natural order is:
- Subject – Verb – Rest:
A Ana quer cuidar de um gato.
Variants like A Ana quer de um gato cuidar sound poetic or archaic; you would not use them in everyday language.
To form a yes/no question from this sentence, in European Portuguese you typically:
- keep the same order and use rising intonation:
A Ana quer cuidar de um gato? – Does Ana want to take care of a cat?
Very formal or literary Portuguese might invert:
- Quer a Ana cuidar de um gato? – also correct, but quite formal.
Approximate IPA (standard European Portuguese):
- A Ana quer cuidar de um gato →
[ɐ ˈɐnɐ kɛɾ kwiˈðaɾ dũ ˈɡatu]
Broken down:
A Ana – [ɐ ˈɐnɐ]
- A = [ɐ], like a relaxed uh
- Ana = [ˈɐnɐ]; both a’s like the first sound in “about”
- Together they link smoothly: [ɐˈɐnɐ]
quer – [kɛɾ]
- e like e in “bed”
- final r is a soft, guttural sound in much of Portugal (not a strong English r)
cuidar – [kwiˈðaɾ]
- cui a bit like “kwee”, but shorter
- the d here is often softened, close to a light “th” sound
- final r as above
de um – usually pronounced together, roughly [dũ]
- nasal vowel like “oon” in “moon”, but without a clear n
gato – [ˈɡatu]
- ga like “ga” in “garden”
- final o is like a short “oo” in “zoo”
In this sentence, quer is best understood as “wants”:
- A Ana quer cuidar de um gato. – Ana wants to take care of a cat.
However, in questions addressed to someone, especially with você / o senhor / a senhora, quer can function like “would like” in English, softening the tone:
- Quer um café? – Would you like a coffee?
For extra politeness, Portuguese often uses the imperfect queria (“would like” more clearly):
- A Ana queria cuidar de um gato. – Ana would like to take care of a cat. (more tentative/polite, or “she wanted to…” in a past context)
You put não (not) directly before the conjugated verb quer:
- A Ana não quer cuidar de um gato.
Ana does not want to take care of a cat.
You don’t put não before cuidar here; it goes before quer, the main (conjugated) verb.