Breakdown of A Ana gosta de falar sobre a cultura de outros países e comparar tradições.
Questions & Answers about A Ana gosta de falar sobre a cultura de outros países e comparar tradições.
In European Portuguese, it’s very common to use the definite article before people’s names:
- A Ana = Ana (literally “the Ana”)
- O João = João (literally “the João”)
It doesn’t change the meaning; it’s mostly a stylistic/grammatical feature of Portuguese, especially in Portugal and in informal speech.
You can say just Ana (without the article), especially in more formal writing or in some regional varieties, but in everyday European Portuguese, A Ana is completely natural and very frequent.
In Portuguese, the verb gostar almost always takes the preposition de:
- gostar de + noun:
- A Ana gosta de música. – Ana likes music.
- gostar de + infinitive (verb in its basic form):
- A Ana gosta de falar. – Ana likes to talk.
So the pattern is:
gostar de + [something]
Saying gosta falar without de is considered wrong in standard Portuguese. The de is obligatory.
Because they depend on gosta de.
In Portuguese, when you say someone likes doing something, you use:
[subject] + gostar de + [verb in infinitive]
So:
- A Ana gosta de falar = Ana likes to talk.
- A Ana gosta de comparar = Ana likes to compare.
Both falar and comparar are in the infinitive because they are the actions that Ana likes doing; they don’t get person/number endings in this structure.
Sobre here means about / regarding:
- falar sobre a cultura = to talk about culture
You can also say:
- falar da cultura (where da = de + a)
This literally means “talk of the culture”, but in practice also means “talk about the culture”.
Nuance:
- falar sobre is very clearly “talk about / discuss (a topic)”.
- falar de can mean talk about, but it can also mean mention/talk of someone/something.
In your sentence, falar sobre a cultura de outros países is very natural and clear: she likes discussing the culture of other countries.
Cultura is often used as an uncountable noun, referring to culture as a general concept:
- a cultura de outros países – the culture of other countries (their cultural life as a whole)
Tradições is plural because there are many individual traditions:
- festivals
- customs
- rituals
- holidays, etc.
So the sentence contrasts:
- a cultura (culture in general)
- and tradições (specific traditions, many of them)
- de outros países = of other countries (in general, not specified)
- dos outros países = of the other countries (a specific, known group of “other” countries)
dos is a contraction of de + os (“of the”).
In your sentence, we’re talking about other countries in general, not “the other countries we already have in mind”, so de outros países (without the article) is more natural.
Portuguese does use articles frequently, but they are usually dropped when the meaning is indefinite and generic:
- outros países = other countries (in general)
- os outros países = the other countries (a specific group already known from context)
In this sentence, outros países is broad and non‑specific, so there is no os.
The preposition sobre goes directly with falar:
- falar sobre = talk about
But comparar normally does not use sobre:
- comparar tradições = compare traditions
- comparar X com Y = compare X with Y
So:
- Natural: falar sobre a cultura de outros países e comparar tradições
- Not natural: falar e comparar sobre a cultura… (because comparar sobre is not a usual pattern)
The e just links two actions Ana likes:
- falar sobre a cultura de outros países
- comparar tradições
Yes, you can say:
- A Ana gosta de falar da cultura de outros países…
The meaning is almost the same: talk about the culture of other countries.
Very small nuance:
- falar sobre a cultura sounds a bit more like “discuss the topic of culture”.
- falar da cultura can sound slightly more like “talk of / speak of their culture”.
In everyday usage, they’re both perfectly acceptable and most people would not perceive a big difference here.
países is pronounced approximately:
- [pa-EE-zesh] in European Portuguese.
The acute accent on í does two things:
- It marks the stressed syllable: pa-Í-ses (stress on -í-).
- It indicates the vowel quality (an open, clear i sound).
Without the accent (paises) it would be spelled incorrectly and the stress could be misinterpreted.
In European Portuguese, tradições is pronounced roughly:
- [trah-dee-SÕESH] (with a nasal sound on -ões).
Key points:
- ç = an s sound (never like “k”).
- õ is a nasal vowel (similar to French on).
- The final -s has a sh‑like sound in Portugal in many positions, especially at the end of words.
So tradições ≈ trah-dee-sõesh.
The e joins two infinitive verbs that Ana likes doing:
- gosta de falar sobre a cultura de outros países
- (gosta de) comparar tradições
So the structure is:
gosta de [falar …] e [comparar …]
If you put e before sobre, you would be trying to join:
- falar
- and sobre a cultura… (a prepositional phrase)
That would break the grammar and the natural grouping of the sentence. The conjunction belongs between the two verbs.