Breakdown of No verão, ligo a ventoinha porque o quarto fica demasiado quente.
Questions & Answers about No verão, ligo a ventoinha porque o quarto fica demasiado quente.
In European Portuguese, seasons normally take the definite article, and em + o contracts to no:
- em + o verão → no verão = in the summer
Saying “em verão” (without article) is not natural here.
You almost always say:
- no verão – in (the) summer
- no inverno – in (the) winter
- na primavera – in (the) spring
- no outono – in (the) autumn/fall
No. In Portuguese, names of seasons are not capitalized unless they start the sentence or are part of a title:
- no verão – in summer
- o inverno em Portugal – winter in Portugal
So “No verão, …” is capitalized only because it’s the first word of the sentence, not because it’s a season name.
“No verão” is an introductory time expression (“In the summer”). In Portuguese, it’s common (and stylistically good) to separate such initial adverbial phrases with a comma:
- No verão, ligo a ventoinha…
- À noite, estudo português. – At night, I study Portuguese.
The comma marks a small pause and makes the sentence clearer, but in short sentences it’s sometimes optional in informal writing. Here it’s perfectly correct.
The verb ligar is very flexible. It can mean different things depending on context:
- ligar a ventoinha – to turn the fan on
- ligar a televisão – to turn the TV on
- ligar o computador – to turn the computer on
But also:
- ligar para alguém – to call someone (on the phone)
- Vou ligar para a Ana. – I’m going to call Ana.
In your sentence, with an appliance (a ventoinha), ligar clearly means “to turn on / switch on”, not “to call”.
Every noun in Portuguese has a grammatical gender. “ventoinha” is feminine, so it takes the feminine article a:
- a ventoinha – the fan
- uma ventoinha – a fan
Masculine nouns use o / um:
- o ventilador – the (electric) fan
- um ventilador – a fan
Both ventoinha and ventilador can refer to a fan, but ventoinha is very common in European Portuguese in everyday speech. The gender is part of the word’s dictionary entry; it’s not predictable from meaning, so you just learn it with the noun.
You must use the article here. In Portuguese, countable singular nouns almost always need an article or another determiner:
- Ligo a ventoinha. – I turn the fan on.
- Ligo uma ventoinha. – I turn a fan on.
“Ligo ventoinha” sounds wrong and incomplete to a native speaker.
Omitting the article is very limited and doesn’t apply in this sentence.
In your sentence, porque is correct:
- porque = because
- Ligo a ventoinha porque o quarto fica demasiado quente.
I turn the fan on because the room gets too hot.
- Ligo a ventoinha porque o quarto fica demasiado quente.
The others are mainly used in questions or as nouns:
por que – why (in many questions), literally “for what”
- Por que ligas a ventoinha? – Why do you turn the fan on?
porquê – a noun meaning “the reason / the why”
- Não entendo o porquê. – I don’t understand the reason / why.
por quê – why at the end of a sentence (mostly Brazilian usage; rare in European writing)
- Fazes isso por quê? – Why do you do that?
So: in your original sentence, “porque” = because is the right choice.
In European Portuguese, quarto most often means “bedroom” in everyday speech:
- o meu quarto – my bedroom
- o quarto das crianças – the kids’ bedroom
It can mean just “room” in some set expressions (quarto de hotel = hotel room), but if you just say “o quarto” in a house context, people will usually understand “the bedroom”.
So here, “o quarto fica demasiado quente” is naturally understood as “the bedroom gets too hot.”
The verb ficar is very versatile. In this sentence it means “to become / to get”:
- o quarto fica demasiado quente – the room gets / becomes too hot
Common uses of ficar:
Change of state (become / get):
- Fiquei cansado. – I got tired.
- Ela fica nervosa. – She gets nervous.
Location (to be located / stay):
- O hotel fica longe. – The hotel is (located) far away.
- Fica em casa. – Stay at home.
Result / outcome:
- Ficou caro. – It ended up expensive.
In your sentence, it’s clearly the change-of-state meaning.
- demasiado quente = too hot (more than is acceptable / comfortable)
- muito quente = very hot (a high degree, but not necessarily “too much”)
Examples:
- O quarto está muito quente. – The room is very hot.
- O quarto está demasiado quente. – The room is too hot.
So “demasiado” usually implies excess (it’s hotter than it should be).
In Portuguese, the simple present can express:
A current action
- Ligo a ventoinha agora. – I’m turning the fan on now.
A habitual / repeated action
- No verão, ligo a ventoinha. – In summer, I (usually) turn the fan on.
Because the sentence starts with “No verão”, it clearly describes a habit, not necessarily something happening right now.
You could make the habitual meaning even clearer with costumar:
- No verão, costumo ligar a ventoinha. – In summer, I usually turn the fan on.
Yes. Both orders are correct:
- No verão, ligo a ventoinha porque o quarto fica demasiado quente.
- Ligo a ventoinha no verão porque o quarto fica demasiado quente.
Putting “No verão” at the beginning emphasizes the time frame (“In summer…”).
Placing it after the verb is also fine and still natural; it just sounds slightly less “framed” or emphasized as the topic of the sentence.
The rest of the order (ligo a ventoinha / porque o quarto fica…) is standard and shouldn’t be changed much.