Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): É normal ficar cansado depois do exame.

É normal... = It is normal... (a general fact, a characteristic of the situation)
Está normal... would sound like you are describing the current, temporary state of something (e.g. O trânsito está normal hoje – The traffic is normal today).

Here we’re not describing how something is right now; we’re making a general statement: “It is normal (in general) to get tired after the exam.”
So é (from ser) is the correct choice.

Where is the word “it” in Portuguese? Why don’t we say something like Ele é normal?

Portuguese usually does not use a dummy subject like English “it” in expressions such as “It is normal / It is important / It is difficult…”.

Instead, Portuguese uses é + adjective + infinitive without an explicit subject:

É normal ficar cansado.
Literally: “Is normal to get tired.”
Natural English: “It is normal to get tired.”

You do not say Ele é normal ficar cansado. The “it” is simply not expressed; é on its own already carries the idea in these impersonal expressions.

Why do we use the infinitive ficar and not a conjugated verb like ficas or ficamos?

After impersonal expressions with é + adjective, Portuguese normally uses an infinitive:

É normal ficar cansado. – It is normal to get tired.
É difícil aprender português. – It is difficult to learn Portuguese.
É importante estudar. – It is important to study.

If you said É normal ficas cansado, it would sound wrong or at least very strange in European Portuguese. The pattern is:

É + (adjective) + (infinitive)

So ficar stays in the infinitive.

What exactly does ficar mean here?

Ficar is a very flexible verb. Here it means “to become / to get” (change of state):

ficar cansado – to get tired / to become tired
ficar nervoso – to get nervous
ficar doente – to get ill

It does not mean “to stay” here, although ficar can also mean “to stay / remain” in other sentences:

Fiquei em casa. – I stayed at home.

In this sentence, think:

É normal (to become tired / to get tired) after the exam.

Why is it cansado and not cansada? What if I’m a woman?

In ficar cansado here, cansado is in its default masculine singular form because the sentence is impersonal and general (about people in general, not about one specific known person).

Compare:

É normal ficar cansado depois do exame.
General statement: It’s normal (for people) to get tired...
→ Use the default: cansado (masculine singular).

But if you make it personal and specify who gets tired, the adjective agrees with that subject:

Eu fico cansada depois do exame. – I (female) get tired after the exam.
Os alunos ficam cansados depois do exame. – The (male/mixed) students get tired...
As alunas ficam cansadas depois do exame. – The (female) students get tired...

So: in this impersonal pattern é + adjective + infinitive, the adjective usually appears in the masculine singular as the neutral/default form.

Could I say É normal estar cansado depois do exame instead of ficar cansado? What’s the difference?

You can say:

É normal estar cansado depois do exame.

…but there is a nuance:

ficar cansado = to get / become tired (focus on the change of state after the exam)
estar cansado = to be tired (state of being tired)

In this context, both are understandable and acceptable, but ficar cansado is more natural because we’re talking about becoming tired as a result of doing the exam.

So:

É normal ficar cansado depois do exame. – very natural, highlights the result of the exam.
É normal estar cansado depois do exame. – also possible, but feels a bit more like “it is normal to be (in a state of) tiredness after the exam.”

Why is it depois do exame and not depois de o exame?

In Portuguese, certain prepositions combine (contract) with the definite articles.
Here, de + o becomes do:

de (of / from) + o (the, masculine singular) → do

So:

depois de o exame
→ contracted form: depois do exame

This contraction is obligatory in standard Portuguese:

✅ depois do exame
❌ depois de o exame (sounds wrong in normal speech and writing)

Can I just say depois do exame without de at all, like English “after the exam”?

In Portuguese, depois on its own means “afterwards / later”.
To say “after [something]”, you must add de:

depois – afterwards, later
- Depois falamos. – We’ll talk later / afterwards.
depois de – after (something)
- depois do exame – after the exam
- depois de jantar – after dinner

So you cannot say ✗ depois o exame. It must be:

depois do exame = depois de + o exame

Is the word order fixed, or can I move depois do exame or ficar cansado around?

Portuguese allows some flexibility in word order, especially with adverbial phrases like depois do exame. All of these are grammatically correct:

É normal ficar cansado depois do exame. (most natural)
É normal, depois do exame, ficar cansado.
Depois do exame, é normal ficar cansado.

The meaning is the same. The first one is the most neutral and common.
Putting Depois do exame at the beginning gives it more emphasis: “After the exam, it’s normal to get tired.”

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

Grammatically, the structure is the same in both varieties:

É normal ficar cansado depois do exame.

Possible differences:

Vocabulary: in Brazil, prova is more common than exame for a school test:
- É normal ficar cansado depois da prova.
Pronunciation: the vowel quality and rhythm will differ (European vs Brazilian accents), but the sentence itself is standard in both.

If your focus is Portuguese from Portugal, exame is perfectly natural, especially for more formal tests.

Could I drop do exame and just say É normal ficar cansado depois?

Yes, in context you can often say:

É normal ficar cansado depois.

This would usually be understood as “afterwards / after that”, referring to something already mentioned (for example, an exam, a workout, an intense meeting, etc.).

However, if the context is not clear, depois do exame is better because it tells the listener exactly after what you get tired.

What is the stress pattern and pronunciation of exame and cansado in European Portuguese?

Very briefly for European Portuguese:

exame: /ɨˈzɐ.m(ɨ)/
- Stress on the second syllable: e-XA-me
- The initial e is a very reduced sound /ɨ/ (similar to a weak “uh”).
- The final e is also often very reduced, sometimes barely audible.
cansado: /kɐ̃ˈsa.du/
- Stress on the second syllable: can-SA-do
- can- has a nasal vowel: /kɐ̃/ (like “cun” with a nasal a).
- Final -do is /du/, usually quite clear in European Portuguese.

So the rhythm is roughly:
É NOR-mal fi-CAR can-SA-do de-POIS do e-XA-me.