Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Lisboa é a capital de Portugal, um pequeno país na Europa, que é um continente muito diferente. - Lisbon is the capital of Portugal, a small country in Europe, which is a very different continent.

ser (here: é) is used for:
- permanent or defining characteristics
- identity, profession, nationality, time, etc.
estar is used for:
- temporary states or locations
- things that can change easily

Being the capital is part of the identity of Lisbon, so you use ser:

Lisboa é a capital de Portugal.
(This is a stable fact, not a temporary state.)

Using está here (Lisboa está a capital de Portugal) is incorrect.

Why is it a capital and not o capital?

In Portuguese, capital (meaning capital city) is feminine:

a capital — the capital (city)

Grammatical gender is arbitrary and must be memorised. Some clues:

Many words ending in -a are feminine (e.g. a casa),
but not all feminine words end in -a.
Some words ending in -l, like capital, can be feminine.

So we say:

Lisboa é a capital de Portugal. ✅
Lisboa é o capital de Portugal. ❌ (wrong gender)

Note: o capital would mean something different in some contexts (e.g. financial capital), but that’s not the case here.

Why is it de Portugal and not do Portugal or da Portugal?

de combines with the definite article (o, a, os, as) to form:

de + o = do
de + a = da
de + os = dos
de + as = das

However, Portugal is one of the countries that normally does not take the article in Portuguese (in European usage):

Portugal (no article)
de Portugal — of Portugal / from Portugal

Compare with countries that do take an article:

a Espanha — Spain → de + a = da Espanha
o Brasil — Brazil → de + o = do Brasil

So:

a capital de Portugal ✅
a capital do Portugal ❌ (sounds wrong in modern European Portuguese)

Why is it um pequeno país and not um país pequeno? What’s the difference?

Both are grammatically correct, but the position of the adjective changes the nuance.

um pequeno país
– Adjective before the noun
– Often more subjective or descriptive in a general way
– Here it feels like “a small country” as a known characteristic, almost part of its identity.
um país pequeno
– Adjective after the noun (most neutral position)
– More literal, objective: a country that is small (size/area/population).

In this sentence:

Portugal, um pequeno país na Europa…
sounds natural, flowing, almost like “Portugal, a little country in Europe…”

If you said:

Portugal, um país pequeno na Europa…
it’s still correct, but it sounds more neutral and slightly more technical/descriptive.

What does na Europa mean, and why is it na and not em a Europa or just em Europa?

na is a contraction:

em + a = na

You use em (“in / on / at”) plus the definite article where needed.

In Portuguese, Europa normally takes the feminine article a:

a Europa — Europe
em + a Europa = na Europa — in Europe

So:

um pequeno país na Europa
= a small country in Europe

Saying em a Europa is grammatically wrong; it must contract to na Europa.

You’d only say em Europa in some very special, abstract contexts (almost never in everyday speech).

What does que refer to in que é um continente muito diferente?

Here que is a relative pronoun, meaning which / that, and it refers back to Europa.

Structure:

Portugal, um pequeno país na Europa, que é um continente muito diferente.
→ Portugal, a small country in Europe, which is a very different continent.

So:

que = Europa

If we simplify:

A Europa é um continente muito diferente.
Europe is a very different continent.

The relative clause:

que é um continente muito diferente
is adding information about Europa.

Why is there a comma before que in ..., que é um continente muito diferente?

The comma here marks a non‑restrictive (non‑defining) relative clause.

..., que é um continente muito diferente.
→ ..., which is a very different continent.

With the comma:

The clause que é um continente muito diferente gives extra information about Europe.
It does not limit or define which Europe you mean (there is only one).

Compare:

Os países da Europa que são pequenos…
The countries in Europe that are small… (defining, no comma)
Os países da Europa, que são pequenos,…
The countries in Europe, which are small,… (extra info about all of them, with comma)

In our sentence, the comma is correct because the speaker is just adding an extra comment about Europe.

Is the phrase um pequeno país na Europa inside commas just extra information?

Yes. It works like an apposition (extra descriptive phrase) giving more information about Portugal.

Lisboa é a capital de Portugal, um pequeno país na Europa, que é um continente muito diferente.

Core idea:

Lisboa é a capital de Portugal. (Lisbon is the capital of Portugal.)

Then two pieces of extra information about Portugal / Europe:

Portugal, um pequeno país na Europa,
→ Portugal is a small country in Europe.
Europa, que é um continente muito diferente.
→ Europe is a very different continent.

If you remove the appositive:

Lisboa é a capital de Portugal.
The sentence is still grammatically complete.

What does muito diferente mean exactly? Does muito here mean “much” or “very”?

In muito diferente, muito works like very:

muito diferente = very different

So:

um continente muito diferente
= a very different continent

muito can mean:

very before adjectives/adverbs:
- muito grande — very big
- muito diferente — very different
a lot / much before verbs or as a pronoun:
- Gosto muito de Lisboa. — I like Lisbon a lot.
- Não tenho muito. — I don’t have much.

In this sentence, it’s the “very” meaning.

Is the sentence que é um continente muito diferente natural in Portuguese? Different from what?

The grammar is correct, but the sentence on its own sounds a bit vague or incomplete in terms of meaning.

um continente muito diferente
→ a very different continent

As a reader you think: Different from what? From other continents? From what the speaker expected?

In real usage, you would often make it clearer, for example:

…que é um continente muito diferente da Ásia.
…which is a very different continent from Asia.
…que é um continente muito diferente do que eu imaginava.
…which is a very different continent from what I imagined.

So it’s grammatically fine, but stylistically a bit odd without context.

How do you pronounce Lisboa, Portugal, Europa, que in European Portuguese?

Approximate European Portuguese pronunciation (IPA + rough English guide):

Lisboa — /liʒˈbo.ɐ/
- li = “lee”
- ʒ = like the “s” in “vision”
- boa ≈ “BO-uh”
  → “leez-BO-uh”
Portugal — /puɾtuˈɣaɫ/
- r = soft tapped r, like Spanish pero
- tu ≈ “too”
- ɣ = soft “g” in the back of the throat
- final l is dark, like English “L” in “full”
  → roughly “poorr-too-GAL” but with a darker final L
Europa — /eu̯ˈɾɔ.pɐ/
- eu = one sound, like saying “eh” + “oo” quickly together
- r = tapped
- ó = open “aw” sound
  → something like “eh-ROH-puh”
que — /kɨ/
- one syllable
- vowel between “ih” and “uh”, central, very reduced
  → like a very short “kɘ”

These are approximate; real European Portuguese tends to reduce and swallow unstressed vowels more than English.