Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): O começo é difícil, mas o resto é fácil. - The beginning is difficult, but the rest is easy.

O começo = literally the beginning, but it can also mean (in general) the beginning of things.
Portuguese sounds more natural with the article here:
- O começo é difícil. ✅
- Começo é difícil. ❌ (sounds wrong or very odd in European Portuguese)

So when you talk about:

general concepts: a vida, o amor, a felicidade, o começo
things that are typical, habitual or well-known

…Portuguese usually uses the article, even if English does not:

A vida é curta. → Life is short.
O começo é difícil. → The beginning is hard. / Starting is hard.

Why is it começo and not something like início? Are they different?

Começo and início are very close in meaning: both can mean beginning / start.

Começo is slightly more informal and very common in everyday speech.
Início can sound a bit more formal or written, like the beginning / the outset / the start in more formal texts.

In this exact sentence, you could say:

O começo é difícil, mas o resto é fácil. ✅
O início é difícil, mas o resto é fácil. ✅ (also correct, just a bit more neutral/formal)

The meaning is practically the same here.

Why is there a little tail under the ç in começo, and how is it pronounced?

The ç (called cedilha) in começo shows that the c is pronounced like s, not k.

ç before a, o, u = always pronounced like s in see.
So começo is pronounced roughly ko-MEH-soo in European Portuguese.

Compare:

cama (bed) → kah-ma (hard k sound)
caça (hunt) → kah-sah (ç makes s sound)

Why does the verb use é and not está? What is the difference here?

Portuguese has two verbs for to be: ser and estar.

In O começo é difícil, mas o resto é fácil:

é comes from ser, used for:
- permanent or characteristic qualities
- general truths, what something is like in general

So:

O começo é difícil. = In general, the beginning is difficult (as a typical property of “beginnings”).
O resto é fácil. = In general, the rest is easy.

If you said O começo está difícil, you would mean:

Right now, at this moment, the beginning is (feeling) difficult, as a temporary situation.

So ser fits better here because the sentence describes a general rule, not a temporary state.

Why is there no subject pronoun like ele in front of é?

In O começo é difícil, o começo itself is the subject, so you don’t need a pronoun.

Structure:

O começo = subject (the beginning)
é = verb (is)
difícil = adjective (difficult)

Portuguese only uses subject pronouns like ele, ela, isso when the subject is a pronoun. Here the subject is a noun phrase (o começo), so you just use that.

If you used a pronoun, it would sound wrong:

Ele o começo é difícil. ❌ (incorrect)

Why are difícil and fácil the same form for both o começo (masculine) and o resto (also masculine)? Don’t adjectives change?

Adjectives in Portuguese usually agree in gender and number with the noun they describe, but:

Some adjectives have only one form for masculine and feminine in the singular.
Difícil and fácil are such adjectives.

So:

o começo difícil (masc. sg.)
a tarefa difícil (fem. sg.)
o exame fácil (masc. sg.)
a pergunta fácil (fem. sg.)

They do change in the plural:

coisas difíceis (difficult things)
exercícios fáceis (easy exercises)

Why is there a comma before mas in ..., mas o resto é fácil?

In Portuguese punctuation, you normally put a comma before mas when it links two clauses that contrast.

Here we have two independent clauses:

O começo é difícil
o resto é fácil

They are joined by mas:

O começo é difícil, mas o resto é fácil.

So:

comma + mas is standard when you contrast two statements.

What exactly does mas mean, and how is it different from mais?

Mas and mais look similar but are completely different words.

mas (no i) = but
- O começo é difícil, mas o resto é fácil.
  → The beginning is hard, but the rest is easy.
mais (with i) = more / plus
- Quero mais café. → I want more coffee.
- Dois mais dois são quatro. → Two plus two is four.

Pronunciation (European Portuguese):

mas: short a, like mush without the h
mais: diphthong, roughly like English mice

Why do difícil and fácil have accents, and how do they affect pronunciation?

The accents in difícil and fácil are stress marks and also help with vowel quality.

difícil: stress is on fí → di-FÍ-cil
fácil: stress is on FÁ → FÁ-cil

Without accents, the default stress rules would put the stress in a different place or leave it ambiguous. The acute accent (´) in Portuguese:

marks the stressed syllable
usually indicates a more open vowel sound

So:

fácil ≈ FAH-seel
difícil ≈ dee-FEE-seel (very roughly, in European Portuguese)

Can I change the word order, like O começo é difícil, mas fácil é o resto?

You can say O começo é difícil, mas fácil é o resto, and it is grammatically correct, but:

It sounds more marked / poetic / emphatic.
In everyday speech, the neutral and most natural order is:
- O começo é difícil, mas o resto é fácil.

The “normal” order in Portuguese is:

subject + verb + complement
→ o resto
- é
  - fácil

When you front fácil:

fácil é o resto
you’re emphasizing fácil for stylistic effect.