Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): A psicóloga ajuda a família a controlar a raiva. - The psychologist helps the family to control their anger.

Why does the sentence start with A psicóloga and not just Psicóloga? In English we would usually say just “A psychologist helps the family…” without “the”.

In European Portuguese, you very often use the definite article (o, a, os, as) before professions, people, and even names when you’re talking about a specific person.

A psicóloga = the psychologist (a specific one that both speaker and listener know about from context).
Leaving out the article (Psicóloga ajuda…) is generally wrong in this type of sentence and sounds incomplete.

So A psicóloga ajuda… is literally “The psychologist helps…”. If you wanted “a psychologist” in the sense of some therapist or other, with no specific one in mind, you’d more likely change the sentence or add more context, but in normal usage A psicóloga is very natural Portuguese.

How do we know that psicóloga is feminine, and what would the masculine form be?

The ending -a on many profession nouns marks the feminine form:

psicólogo = male psychologist (or masculine grammatical form)
psicóloga = female psychologist (or feminine grammatical form)

Portuguese also shows gender agreement with the article:

o psicólogo (masculine singular)
a psicóloga (feminine singular)

So a psicóloga tells you that the person is grammatically feminine, and in real life usually a woman.

What verb form is ajuda, and why isn’t it ajudar or ajudas?

Ajuda is the 3rd person singular, present tense form of ajudar (“to help”):

eu ajudo – I help
tu ajudas – you (singular, informal) help
ele / ela / você ajuda – he / she / you help

Here, the subject is a psicóloga (she), so we use ela ajuda → a psicóloga ajuda.

ajudar is the infinitive (“to help”).
ajudas would be the tu form (“you help”), which doesn’t match the subject a psicóloga.

In ajuda a família, what is the a in front of família? Is it a preposition or an article?

In ajuda a família, the a is the definite article (“the”), not a preposition.

a família = the family (direct object of the verb ajuda = “helps the family”).

So the structure is:

(A psicóloga) – subject
(ajuda) – verb
(a família) – direct object (“the family”)

There is no preposition before família. The preposition a appears later in the sentence, before controlar, for a different reason.

Why don’t we write à família with a grave accent here?

In Portuguese, à is a contraction of a (preposition) + a (article).

You’d use à when there is a preposition a required before a feminine noun that already has the article a:

Vou a + a escola → Vou à escola. (I go to the school.)

In A psicóloga ajuda a família…, a família is a direct object, so there is no preposition before it, just the article a:

ajuda (a) família – helps the family

Since there is only an article and no preposition, there is nothing to contract, so we do not write à família here.

What is the function of the second a in ajuda a família a controlar?

That second a (before controlar) is a preposition, and it belongs with the verb ajudar:

ajudar alguém a fazer alguma coisa
= to help someone to do something

So the pattern is:

ajuda [a família] [a controlar a raiva]
– helps the family to control the anger

Here:

ajudar … a controlar = help … to control

In European Portuguese, ajudar a + infinitive is the normal structure. You usually need that preposition a before the infinitive verb controlar.

If a família is “the family”, could we also say a sua família to mean “her family” or “their family”?

Yes, but it changes the meaning slightly:

a família – the family, understood from context (probably the one they are working with, or a specific family already mentioned).
a sua família – her/your/their family, more explicitly “the family that belongs to that person”.

Examples:

A psicóloga ajuda a família a controlar a raiva.
= The psychologist helps the family control anger (some specific family).
A psicóloga ajuda a sua família a controlar a raiva.
= The psychologist helps her own / his own / your / their family control anger (depending on context and who sua refers to).

So sua introduces the idea of possession, which is not necessarily implied in the original sentence.

Why do we say controlar a raiva with the article a, when in English we usually say “control anger” without “the”?

Portuguese often uses the definite article with abstract nouns where English does not:

a raiva – (the) anger
a felicidade – (the) happiness
o medo – (the) fear

So:

controlar a raiva literally = “to control the anger”
but it is naturally translated into English as “to control anger”.

The article a here can refer to:

a more general idea of anger, or
a specific anger being discussed (e.g. the anger the family is experiencing).

Both readings are possible; the context usually makes it clear.

Could we move the words around and say A psicóloga ajuda a controlar a raiva da família? Would that mean the same thing?

You can say that, but there is a subtle difference in focus:

A psicóloga ajuda a família a controlar a raiva.
- Focus: helps the family (so that they can control the anger).
- The family is the direct object of ajuda: she helps the family.
A psicóloga ajuda a controlar a raiva da família.
- Focus: helps to control the family’s anger.
- The direct object of ajuda is now more like the whole action controlar a raiva da família.
- Grammatically, it sounds more like she is helping with the management of the family’s anger, not explicitly “helping the family”.

Both are grammatical, but the original sentence puts the family more clearly as the direct recipient of her help.

What exactly does raiva mean? Is it more like “anger” or “rage”?

Raiva most commonly means anger, a strong feeling of irritation or fury.

In everyday contexts:
raiva = anger, being really mad/upset.
It can also be stronger, closer to rage, depending on context and adjectives:
- muita raiva – a lot of anger / rage
- raiva incontrolável – uncontrollable rage

Note: raiva is also the word for rabies (the disease) in Portuguese, but in a sentence like this one, with a psychologist and a family, it clearly refers to the emotion, not the disease.

What do the accent marks in psicóloga and família tell us?

The accents show where the stress (word accent) falls and sometimes the vowel quality.

psicóloga
- Without an accent, the default stress rule would be different.
- The accent on ó shows that the stress is on that syllable:
  psi–CÓ–lo–ga.
- Words stressed on the third syllable from the end (like psicóloga) always get a written accent in Portuguese.
família
- The accent on í shows that the stress is on mí:
  fa–MÍ–li–a.
- Without the accent, it might be read with a different stress pattern.

So the accents are not optional decoration: they tell you exactly how to pronounce the words and distinguish them from other possible pronunciations.

How do you roughly pronounce psicóloga, família, and raiva in European Portuguese?

Approximate pronunciations (for European Portuguese):

psicóloga → roughly psi-KO-luh-guh
- ps is pronounced (unlike English “psychologist” where p is silent).
- Stress on CÓ.
família → roughly fuh-MEE-lyuh
- lh = a palatal sound, similar to the lli in “million” said fast.
- Final -a here sounds more like a very short uh ([ɐ]) in European Portuguese.
raiva → roughly R(E)YE-vuh
- r at the beginning is a guttural sound, somewhat like a French or German r.
- ai = like English eye.
- Final -a again sounds like a short uh in European Portuguese.