Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): A derrota é difícil para o Pedro.

A derrota literally is “the defeat”, but depending on context it can mean:
- a specific loss: “This/that defeat is hard for Pedro.”
- or defeat in general: “Defeat is hard for Pedro.”
English often drops the article with general ideas (defeat, love, life), but Portuguese frequently keeps it:
- A vida é curta. – Life is short.
- O amor é complicado. – Love is complicated.

So A derrota is normal and idiomatic; leaving out the article (Derrota é difícil…) sounds odd here.

Why is derrota feminine? How can I tell?

Derrota is a noun, and in Portuguese every noun has grammatical gender. This one happens to be feminine:

You can see it takes a derrota, not o derrota.
Many nouns ending in -a are feminine (though not all), so derrota fits that pattern.

There’s no general rule that lets you guess every noun’s gender; you learn them with their article:

a derrota (the defeat) – feminine
o jogo (the game) – masculine

In this sentence, the gender affects the article (a), but not the adjective, because difícil does not change with gender.

Why doesn’t difícil change to agree with derrota being feminine?

Some Portuguese adjectives have different masculine and feminine forms (bonito / bonita, cansado / cansada), but many do not. Difícil is one of the indeclinable ones:

Singular: difícil (both masculine and feminine)
Plural: difíceis

So you say:

A derrota é difícil. – feminine singular
O jogo é difícil. – masculine singular
As derrotas são difíceis. – feminine plural
Os jogos são difíceis. – masculine plural

The form changes only for number (singular/plural), not for gender.

Why is it o Pedro and not just Pedro? We don’t say “the Peter” in English.

In European Portuguese, it’s very common to use the definite article before personal names:

o Pedro, a Ana, o João, a Maria

It doesn’t mean anything special; it’s just a feature of the language and sounds natural in everyday speech in Portugal. In more formal contexts (news headlines, official documents, very formal writing), the article is often dropped.

In Brazilian Portuguese, using the article before names is much less common and can sound regional or marked, so Brazilians would more often say just Pedro.

Could we say “para Pedro” instead of “para o Pedro”?

Yes, grammatically you can say para Pedro, and in writing it can sound more formal or neutral. But in everyday European Portuguese speech, para o Pedro (with the article) is more natural.

So:

A derrota é difícil para o Pedro. – the most natural in Portugal.
A derrota é difícil para Pedro. – more formal/literary-sounding in Portugal, more neutral in Brazil.

If you’re aiming for typical European Portuguese spoken style, keep the article: para o Pedro.

What exactly does para mean here? Could we use another preposition like a?

Here, para indicates the person for whom something is difficult:

difícil para o Pedro – difficult for Pedro

You will often see adjective + para + person:

É fácil para mim. – It’s easy for me.
É importante para nós. – It’s important for us.

In more formal Portuguese, you might occasionally see difícil a alguém (with a instead of para), but:

difícil para alguém is by far the most common and natural in modern usage. So para o Pedro is the right choice here.

Why is it é (from ser) and not está (from estar)?

Ser is used for characteristics that are seen as permanent, defining, or general truths; estar is used for states or conditions that are temporary or changeable.

A derrota é difícil para o Pedro. suggests:

Defeat (in general, or this kind of situation) is, by its nature, difficult for Pedro. It describes a characteristic way he reacts.

If you said A derrota está difícil para o Pedro, it would sound odd here, because we are not talking about a temporary state of the defeat itself.

Compare:

Perder é difícil para o Pedro. – Losing is (by nature) hard for Pedro.
O Pedro está triste com a derrota. – Pedro is currently sad about the defeat.

Can I change the word order to “Para o Pedro, a derrota é difícil”?

Yes, that is correct and natural. Both of these mean the same:

A derrota é difícil para o Pedro.
Para o Pedro, a derrota é difícil.

Putting Para o Pedro first adds a slight emphasis on for Pedro (as opposed to someone else), but the core meaning doesn’t change. Word order in Portuguese is fairly flexible, especially for moving prepositional phrases like this.

Is A derrota talking about defeat in general or one specific defeat?

It can be either, depending on context.

General idea:
If the conversation is about Pedro’s personality or typical reactions, it can mean:
- “Defeat is hard for Pedro.” / “Losing is hard for Pedro in general.”
Specific event:
If you’re talking about a particular match or situation you both know about, it can mean:
- “This defeat is hard for Pedro.”

Portuguese often leaves this kind of ambiguity to be resolved by context, just like English does with “This is hard for him” vs “That kind of thing is hard for him”.

Is there a more natural way to say “Losing is hard for Pedro” using a verb instead of the noun derrota?

Yes. A very common alternative is to use the verb perder (to lose) as the subject:

Perder é difícil para o Pedro. – Losing is difficult for Pedro.

You could also hear:

Perder é duro para o Pedro. – Losing is tough for Pedro. (more emotional/colloquial)

A derrota é difícil para o Pedro focuses a bit more on “the defeat” (as an event or concept), whereas Perder é difícil… focuses more on the action/experience of losing. Both are correct.

Is there any difference in this sentence between European and Brazilian Portuguese?

The structure is fine in both varieties, but there are two main differences:

Article before the name:
- In Portugal, A derrota é difícil para o Pedro is very natural.
- In Brazil, most speakers would more likely say A derrota é difícil para Pedro (without o).
Pronunciation:
- Vowels and the r sound are pronounced differently in European vs Brazilian Portuguese.

Grammatically, though, the sentence is acceptable in both, with only that stylistic difference around o Pedro.

How do you pronounce A derrota é difícil para o Pedro in European Portuguese?

A careful pronunciation in European Portuguese would be approximately:

[ɐ dɨˈʁɔ.tɐ ɛ dɨˈfi.sil ˈpa.ɾɐ u ˈpe.dɾu]

Some notes:

r in derrota and Pedro is a guttural sound, like a French or German r.
derrota: stress on the second syllable – derrota.
difícil: stress on fí – difícil.
In natural speech, para o often sounds like one unit, roughly [ˈpa.ɾu] or [ˈpɾu] in fast speech.