Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Ela sente vergonha porque pensa que a culpa é dela. - She feels ashamed because she thinks it is her fault.

Ela sente vergonha literally means “She feels shame/embarrassment.”
It focuses on the internal feeling and is formed with the verb sentir
- a noun (vergonha).
Ela está envergonhada means “She is embarrassed / she is feeling ashamed (right now).”
It uses the verb estar
- an adjective (envergonhada).

In many situations they can both translate as “she is embarrassed,” but:

sente vergonha often sounds a bit more general or emotional.
está envergonhada can feel more like a temporary state you can see from the outside.

In your sentence, “sente vergonha” works well because it connects directly to an internal emotional reaction to the idea of guilt.

What’s the difference between “sentir” and “sentir-se”? Why isn’t it “Ela sente-se vergonha”?

In European Portuguese:

sentir (without -se) is normally used with a direct object, often a noun:
- Ela sente vergonha. – She feels shame.
- Ele sente medo. – He feels fear.
sentir-se is normally used without a direct object, or with an adjective/adverb:
- Ela sente-se mal. – She feels bad.
- Ela sente-se triste. – She feels sad.
- Como te sentes? – How do you feel?

You do not say ✗ Ela sente-se vergonha. That sounds wrong to native speakers.

So here “Ela sente vergonha” is correct because vergonha is the direct object of sentir.

What exactly does “vergonha” mean here? Is it “shame” or “embarrassment”?

Vergonha covers both “shame” and “embarrassment”, depending on context.

shame / guilt-related feeling:
Ele sente vergonha do que fez. – He feels shame about what he did.
embarrassment / social awkwardness:
Ela tem vergonha de falar em público. – She is shy/embarrassed to speak in public.

In this sentence, because it talks about culpa (fault/guilt), “vergonha” can be understood as shame or feeling ashamed.

Why is it “porque” here and not “por que / porquê / porquê”?

Portuguese distinguishes several forms:

porque – “because” (conjunction, gives a reason)
> Ela sente vergonha porque pensa que a culpa é dela.
> She feels ashamed because she thinks it’s her fault.
por que – usually “why” or “for which” (separate preposition + relative/interrogative)
> Por que estás triste? – Why are you sad?
porquê (with accent, usually a noun) – “the reason / the why”
> Ninguém sabe o porquê. – Nobody knows the reason.
por quê – in BP normally at the end of a sentence; in EP it’s much rarer/less systematic.

In your sentence we are linking a cause to a consequence, so we must use porque = “because.”

Why do we need “que” in “pensa que a culpa é dela”? Could we say “pensa a culpa é dela”?

You need the “que” here. You cannot say ✗ ela pensa a culpa é dela.

In Portuguese, when a verb like pensar, achar, dizer, saber, imaginar introduces a full clause, you normally use que:

Ela pensa que a culpa é dela. – She thinks (that) the fault is hers.
Eu acho que ele tem razão. – I think (that) he is right.

So que is a mandatory conjunction in this kind of structure.

What’s the difference between “pensa que” and “acha que” here?

Both can work here and often translate to “she thinks that…”.

pensa que – more literally “she thinks that”; can feel a bit more neutral or cognitive.
acha que – “she thinks / she believes that”; often sounds slightly more informal and opinion-based.

Examples:

Ela pensa que a culpa é dela. – She thinks it’s her fault.
Ela acha que a culpa é dela. – She believes / she thinks it’s her fault.

In everyday speech in Portugal, acha que is extremely common for expressing personal opinions, but pensa que sounds perfectly natural here too.

Why is it “a culpa” with the article “a”? Could we just say “culpa é dela”?

You almost always use the definite article with culpa in this kind of sentence:

A culpa é dela. – It’s her fault.
A culpa não é minha. – It’s not my fault.

Saying ✗ Culpa é dela sounds wrong or, at best, extremely odd in normal Portuguese.

The article a here marks culpa as a specific, known thing in the situation: “the” fault (we’re talking about).

Why is it “é dela” and not “é sua”?

Both dela and sua can mean “her”, but they are used differently.

dela = “of her”, formed from de + ela
→ very clear whose it is:
- A culpa é dela. – It’s her fault.
- O carro é dela. – It’s her car.
sua is a possessive adjective/pronoun and can mean “his/her/your (formal)” depending on context:
- A sua culpa. – your/her/his fault (ambiguous without context).

In Portugal, dela / dele are often preferred when you want to be unambiguous about whose something is.
So “a culpa é dela” clearly means “the fault is hers.”

Could we change the word order, like “É dela a culpa” or “A culpa dela é”?

Some variations are possible, but they don’t all sound equally natural:

A culpa é dela. – Most neutral and common.
É dela a culpa. – Also correct; can sound a bit more emphatic or stylistic: “It’s hers, the fault is.”
A culpa dela. – Without a verb, just a noun phrase: “her fault”. You need context or something else after it:
- Foi a culpa dela. – It was her fault.
✗ A culpa dela é. – Generally ungrammatical; you expect some complement after é.

In your sentence, “a culpa é dela” is the natural, standard form.

How does “dela” work grammatically? Is it one word or “de ela”?

Dela is a contraction of the preposition de + the pronoun ela:

de + ela → dela
de + ele → dele
de + eles → deles
de + elas → delas

It literally means “of her”.

In “a culpa é dela”, you can think of it as “the fault is of her”, which in natural English becomes “it’s her fault.”

Why is the verb in the present tense “pensa”? Could it also be “está a pensar”?

Portuguese present tense covers both:

habitual / general truth:
Ela pensa que a culpa é dela. – She (generally) thinks it’s her fault.
right now / current mental state:
Ela pensa que a culpa é dela. – She thinks (right now) it’s her fault.

You could say:

Ela está a pensar que a culpa é dela.

But that highlights the ongoing mental process (“she is in the process of thinking that…”), which is less natural here.
We’re more interested in her belief, so the simple present pensa is better.

Why is it “a culpa é dela” (indicative) and not “a culpa seja dela” (subjunctive)?

The subjunctive in Portuguese is used with doubt, possibility, wish, hypothesis, etc.

Here, she believes this as a fact in her mind: she thinks the fault really is hers. There is no doubt or uncertainty from her point of view inside this clause.

Ela pensa que a culpa é dela. – She thinks (believes) the fault is hers.
→ é = indicative, stating what she takes as reality.

You would use the subjunctive after verbs that trigger doubt, possibility, wishes:

Ela duvida que a culpa seja dela. – She doubts that the fault is hers.
→ seja = subjunctive, because of duvidar (to doubt).

So with pensa que, the normal form is “a culpa é dela.”