Breakdown of A candidata mais jovem promete reduzir os impostos e ajudar os estudantes.
Questions & Answers about A candidata mais jovem promete reduzir os impostos e ajudar os estudantes.
In Portuguese, nouns referring to people usually have a masculine and a feminine form:
- o candidato = the (male) candidate
- a candidata = the (female) candidate
You can see the feminine here in two places:
- The article: a (feminine singular) instead of o (masculine singular).
- The noun ending: -a in candidata instead of -o in candidato.
If the person is a woman, you must use the feminine article and noun: a candidata.
Most adjectives in Portuguese normally come after the noun:
- a candidata jovem (less common)
- a candidata mais jovem (here with mais, “younger/youngest”)
But many adjectives can go either before or after with a slight nuance:
- a jovem candidata – puts more emphasis on “young” as a sort of defining characteristic, more “stylistic” or “literary” sometimes.
- a candidata mais jovem – neutral, very standard structure.
In this sentence, a candidata mais jovem (literally “the more young candidate”) is the most natural wording, and it clearly expresses “the youngest candidate” in context.
Mais jovem is formally the comparative: more young / younger.
Portuguese usually uses mais + adjective for both:
- comparative: mais jovem que… = younger than…
- superlative (within a context): a candidata mais jovem = the youngest candidate (of the group we’re talking about)
So, even though word-for-word it is “the more young candidate”, in real usage a candidata mais jovem is normally understood as the youngest candidate.
Promete is the 3rd person singular of prometer (to promise) in the present tense:
- ela promete = she promises
In Portuguese, the present tense is very often used for promises, manifestos, headlines, and political statements, just like in English:
- Ela promete reduzir impostos. = She promises to reduce taxes.
You don’t need a preposition before the infinitive verb:
- ✅ promete reduzir
- ❌ promete a reduzir
You could also say vai prometer, but that changes the meaning to “is going to promise”, referring to a future act of making a promise, not the promise itself.
In Portuguese, after many verbs like prometer, querer, gostar de, the second verb often appears directly in the infinitive without to / para:
- promete reduzir = promises to reduce
- quer ajudar = wants to help
There is no to-marker like in English; the infinitive already does the job. So promete reduzir os impostos is the natural structure.
Os is the masculine plural definite article, like the:
- os impostos = the taxes
- os estudantes = the students
You can drop the article:
- reduzir impostos
- ajudar estudantes
But the nuance changes slightly:
- With os: you’re referring to a more specific or general but “known” group (e.g. the taxes in the country, the students as a group in society).
- Without os: more indefinite / generic, closer to English “reduce taxes” or “help students” in a general, unnamed way.
In political speech, os impostos, os estudantes are very natural because they refer to the taxes and the students in society as known categories.
In everyday use, English tax is often imposto in Portuguese, especially government taxes like:
- imposto sobre o rendimento = income tax
- imposto sobre o valor acrescentado (IVA) = VAT
Taxa, on the other hand, is more like a fee / charge / rate, often for a specific service:
- taxa de inscrição = registration fee
- taxa de juro = interest rate
In the sentence reduzir os impostos, we’re talking about lowering government taxes in general, so impostos is the correct choice.
Jovem is one of those adjectives that does not change for gender:
- um rapaz jovem = a young boy (masculine)
- uma rapariga jovem = a young girl (feminine)
- a candidata jovem = the young (female) candidate
For the plural, it changes to jovens:
- candidatos jovens (masc. plural)
- candidatas jovens (fem. plural)
So:
- Singular: jovem (for both genders)
- Plural: jovens
Very roughly (using English-like approximations for European Portuguese):
reduzir ≈ reh-doo-ZEER
- re- like “reh”
- -du- like “doo” but shorter
- -zir with z as in “zoo”, and ir like “eer” but shorter and tenser
impostos ≈ een-POSH-toosh
- im- like “een” (nasal, but you can start with plain “een”)
- -pos- with po like English “poh”; s between vowels often sounds like “sh” in European Portuguese, so pos ≈ posh
- -tos: final -os often sounds like “oosh” or a very reduced “ush” in European Portuguese.
Precise phonetics are more complex, but this is a useful starting approximation.
No, the infinitive ajudar does not change with the subject:
- A candidata promete ajudar os estudantes.
- Os candidatos prometem ajudar os estudantes.
In both, ajudar stays the same. The verb that must agree with the subject is the finite verb:
- a candidata promete (she promises)
- os candidatos prometem (they promise)
The following verbs (reduzir, ajudar) stay in the infinitive and do not take person/number endings.
You can, but it changes the meaning:
- promete reduzir os impostos = she promises to reduce taxes (a commitment, a pledge)
- vai reduzir os impostos = she is going to reduce taxes / she will reduce taxes (a prediction or plan, not explicitly framed as a promise)
If you want to keep the idea of “promise”, you need promete (or another verb like garante = guarantees). Using vai mainly expresses futurity, not the speech act of promising.
The sentence:
A candidata mais jovem promete reduzir os impostos e ajudar os estudantes.
is perfectly natural in both European and Brazilian Portuguese.
Differences you might notice are more in pronunciation and sometimes stylistic choices, not in basic grammar or vocabulary for this specific sentence.
A Brazilian speaker might be slightly more likely to drop one of the articles in casual speech (e.g. reduzir impostos, ajudar estudantes), but the original version is also common in Brazil.