Breakdown of A Ana quer viajar para outro continente e estudar com estudantes estrangeiros.
Questions & Answers about A Ana quer viajar para outro continente e estudar com estudantes estrangeiros.
In European Portuguese, it’s very common to use the definite article before a person’s name:
- A Ana = Ana (literally “the Ana”)
- O João = João (“the João”)
This sounds natural and neutral in Portugal. You can say just Ana, but in everyday speech A Ana is more typical.
In Brazilian Portuguese, the article before names is much less common and can sound regional or informal, but in Portugal it’s standard.
Querer is the infinitive (to want). In the sentence we need a form that agrees with Ana, so we conjugate it in the present:
- eu quero – I want
- tu queres – you want (singular, informal)
- ele / ela quer – he / she wants
- nós queremos – we want
- eles / elas querem – they want
Since Ana = ela, we use quer (3rd person singular).
So A Ana quer = “Ana wants”.
After verbs like querer (to want), the next verb usually stays in the infinitive:
- A Ana quer viajar – Ana wants to travel
- A Ana quer estudar – Ana wants to study
We don’t conjugate viajar or estudar because quer already shows the tense and the subject.
In English we use “to travel / to study”; in Portuguese we just use the bare infinitive viajar, estudar after quer.
Portuguese often avoids repeating the same verb when it has the same subject:
- A Ana quer viajar para outro continente e estudar com estudantes estrangeiros.
Here, quer “controls” both infinitives viajar and estudar. It means:
- A Ana quer viajar … e (quer) estudar …
Repeating quer is possible:
- A Ana quer viajar para outro continente e quer estudar com estudantes estrangeiros.
but it sounds more emphatic and slightly heavier. The original version is more natural and fluent.
In Portuguese, viajar usually needs a preposition before the destination. The most common one is para:
- viajar para Portugal – to travel to Portugal
- viajar para o Brasil – to travel to Brazil
- viajar para outro continente – to travel to another continent
You can sometimes see viajar a (more formal / written or in fixed expressions), but you cannot drop the preposition altogether.
So viajar outro continente is incorrect; you need viajar para outro continente.
Outro already has an “indefinite” meaning: outro continente = another / a different continent.
That’s why usually there’s no extra article:
- outro continente – another continent
- outro país – another country
- outra cidade – another city
You can say um outro continente, but it adds emphasis, like “a different continent (instead of this one)”.
You would say o outro continente only if you are contrasting with a specific one already known to both speakers, like “this continent vs the other continent”.
In the neutral sense “another continent”, para outro continente is the natural choice.
In Portuguese, most descriptive adjectives come after the noun:
- estudantes estrangeiros – foreign students
- cidade bonita – beautiful city
But some words like outro, primeiro, último, muito, todo, etc. normally come before the noun:
- outro continente – another continent
- primeiro dia – first day
- muitos estudantes – many students
So:
- outro continente (fixed pattern: outro before the noun)
- estudantes estrangeiros (adjective estrangeiros after the noun)
Com means with. It introduces the people who are accompanying Ana or who are involved in the activity with her:
- estudar com estudantes estrangeiros
= to study with foreign students
Other examples:
- Trabalho com médicos. – I work with doctors.
- Ela mora com os pais. – She lives with her parents.
Without the article, estudantes estrangeiros is generic / indefinite – it refers to foreign students in general, not to a specific known group:
- com estudantes estrangeiros – with foreign students (some, in general)
If you say com os estudantes estrangeiros, you’re talking about a specific set of foreign students that both speakers already know about (for example, “those foreign students we mentioned earlier”).
So the version without os is the natural choice when you introduce this idea for the first time and mean it in a general sense.
estudante is a common-gender noun:
- o estudante – the (male) student
- a estudante – the (female) student
The plural is estudantes for both genders:
- os estudantes – the (male or mixed) students
- as estudantes – the (female) students
Estrangeiro / estrangeira / estrangeiros / estrangeiras is an adjective and must agree in gender and number with the noun:
- estudante estrangeiro – male, singular
- estudante estrangeira – female, singular
- estudantes estrangeiros – all male or mixed group (default when gender is unknown)
- estudantes estrangeiras – all female group
In the sentence, estudantes estrangeiros is masculine plural, used as the generic / default form.
Yes, but there’s a nuance:
- estudante is a broad word: anyone who studies (school, university, language courses, etc.).
- aluno tends to suggest a more institutional or school-like relationship (a pupil/student enrolled in a course, usually with a teacher).
In many contexts they overlap, and both estudantes estrangeiros and alunos estrangeiros can be understood as “foreign students”.
In your sentence, estudantes estrangeiros sounds slightly more general and is perfectly natural.
The sentence uses the standard neutral order in Portuguese:
- Subject: A Ana
- Verb: quer
- Verb complements: viajar para outro continente e estudar com estudantes estrangeiros
You could move parts around for emphasis or style, but that’s less common and can sound marked or poetic. For normal conversation and writing, the given order is the natural one.