Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): É fácil distrair-se com o telemóvel. - It is easy to get distracted with the cellphone.

In this sentence, distrair-se is used in a generic way, similar to English “it’s easy to get distracted (people in general)” or “one easily gets distracted.”
There is no specific person mentioned; it’s about people in general getting distracted by the phone.

Why is it distrair-se (with a hyphen) and not se distrair?

In European Portuguese, unstressed object pronouns like me, te, se, nos, vos are usually attached after the infinitive with a hyphen:

distrair-me – to get distracted (I)
distrair-te – to get distracted (you)
distrair-se – to get distracted (he/she/you formal/people in general)

So distrair-se is the standard form.

The form se distrair (pronoun before the infinitive) is much more typical of Brazilian Portuguese. In Portugal, in this sentence, distrair-se is the natural choice.

Who is actually getting distracted here, if there is no subject like “people” or “you”?

Grammatically, the sentence is impersonal:

É fácil = It is easy
distrair-se = to get distracted (people in general / one)

So it means something like “It’s easy to get distracted with the phone”, where English uses a dummy “it” and a general, unspecific “you/people”.

If you wanted to make the subject explicit, you could say, for example:

É fácil distrairmo-nos com o telemóvel. – It’s easy for us to get distracted with the phone.
As pessoas distraem-se facilmente com o telemóvel. – People get distracted easily with the phone.

What’s the difference between distrair and distrair-se? Could I say É fácil distrair com o telemóvel?

No, É fácil distrair com o telemóvel is not correct in this context.

distrair alguém = to distract someone else
- O barulho distrai as crianças. – The noise distracts the children.
distrair-se = to distract oneself, to get distracted
- Eu distraio-me com facilidade. – I get distracted easily.

In your sentence, the idea is “people get distracted themselves,” so you must use the reflexive: distrair-se.

Why is it com o telemóvel and not something like pelo telemóvel or no telemóvel?

The verb distrair-se usually takes the preposition com to express what causes the distraction:

distrair-se com o telemóvel – to get distracted with/by the phone
distrair-se com a televisão – to get distracted with the TV

Other prepositions would change the meaning:

pelo telemóvel (por + o) – more like “because of/through the phone”; it sounds odd in this sentence.
no telemóvel (em + o) – “on the phone” (location), e.g.
- Estou no telemóvel. – I’m on the phone.

For “get distracted by/with X”, you want com.

Why do we say o telemóvel and not just telemóvel?

Portuguese very often uses the definite article (o, a, os, as) with nouns in a general sense, where English usually drops it:

O telemóvel distrai muito. – Mobile phones are very distracting.
Gosto do chocolate. – I like chocolate.

So com o telemóvel here means essentially “with the mobile phone” in a general way (phones as a thing), not necessarily one specific phone the speaker has in mind. The article is just normal Portuguese usage.

What is telemóvel exactly? Is it different from telefone or celular?

In European Portuguese:

telemóvel = mobile phone / cell phone (normal everyday word)
telefone = phone in general (often a landline, but can be broader)

In Brazilian Portuguese, the common word for mobile phone is celular, not telemóvel. So:

Portugal: telemóvel
Brazil: celular

If you say telemóvel in Portugal, everyone will understand you as meaning mobile phone / smartphone.

Can I say É fácil ficar distraído com o telemóvel instead? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say:

É fácil ficar distraído com o telemóvel.

The difference is subtle:

distrair-se = to get distracted, focusing on the action of distracting oneself.
ficar distraído = to become / end up distracted, focusing more on the resulting state (“being distracted”).

Both are natural in European Portuguese, and in many contexts they are almost interchangeable.
The original sentence is slightly more direct and verbal: “It’s easy to get distracted with the phone.”

Why is it É fácil distrair-se and not É fácil de se distrair?

In European Portuguese, with adjectives like fácil, it is common to use an infinitive without de:

É fácil fazer isto. – It’s easy to do this.
É difícil aprender português. – It’s hard to learn Portuguese.
É fácil distrair-se com o telemóvel.

You can hear é fácil de se distrair in some varieties and in informal speech (more in Brazil than in Portugal), but in standard European Portuguese the version without de is clearer and more idiomatic here:

Prefer: É fácil distrair-se com o telemóvel.

Why is it é fácil and not está fácil?

In Portuguese, ser is used for more inherent or typical qualities, and estar for more temporary states.

É fácil = it is (in general) easy
Está fácil would suggest a temporary condition (“right now it happens to be easy”), and in this structure it sounds unnatural.

So for this kind of general statement, you use ser:

É fácil distrair-se com o telemóvel. – It’s easy (in general) to get distracted with the phone.

Why is fácil in the masculine singular? What is it agreeing with?

Here, fácil is agreeing with an implicit, abstract subject – something like “isso / isto” (this situation / this fact).

The structure is:

(Isto) é fácil distrair-se com o telemóvel.

When an adjective like fácil refers to a whole idea or infinitive phrase, it normally appears in masculine singular by default:

É difícil aprender chinês.
É importante descansar.

So fácil is not agreeing with telemóvel; it’s agreeing with that abstract, non‑expressed “it”.

How would the sentence change if we made the subject explicit, like “they” or “people”?

Portuguese has a personal infinitive, so you can make the subject more explicit:

É fácil distrair-se com o telemóvel. – It’s easy to get distracted (people in general).
É fácil distraírem-se com o telemóvel. – It’s easy for them to get distracted with the phone.

Here, distraírem-se is the infinitive marked for 3rd person plural (eles/elas).

You could also rephrase without the infinitive:

As pessoas distraem-se facilmente com o telemóvel. – People get distracted easily with the phone.

How would I say “I easily get distracted with my phone” in a similar style?

Several natural options in European Portuguese:

With a finite verb:
- Distraio-me facilmente com o telemóvel.
Using a structure close to the original:
- É fácil eu distrair-me com o telemóvel. (grammatical, but a bit heavier)
- É fácil para mim distrair-me com o telemóvel. – It’s easy for me to get distracted with the phone.

In everyday speech, Distraio-me facilmente com o telemóvel is the most straightforward.

How do you pronounce É fácil distrair-se com o telemóvel in European Portuguese?

Approximate European Portuguese pronunciation (IPA):

É – [ɛ]
fácil – [ˈfas.il]
distrair‑se – [diʃ.tɾɐˈiɾ.sɨ]
com – [kõ] (nasal vowel)
o – [u] (very short)
telemóvel – [tɛ.lɨˈmɔ.vɛɫ]

So roughly:
[ɛ ˈfas.il diʃ.tɾɐˈiɾ.sɨ kõ u tɛ.lɨˈmɔ.vɛɫ]

Stress falls on:

fá in fácil
ir in distrair-se
mó in telemóvel (the ó with an accent shows the stressed syllable).

Is this sentence formal, informal, or neutral?

The sentence “É fácil distrair-se com o telemóvel.” is neutral in tone.

You can use it in conversation, in writing, and in relatively formal contexts.
To make it a bit more conversational, people might add something like “Hoje em dia”:
- Hoje em dia, é fácil distrair-se com o telemóvel. – Nowadays, it’s easy to get distracted with the phone.