Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): O meu sono é irregular quando bebo muito café. - My sleep is irregular when I drink a lot of coffee.

Leaving out the article (meu sono) is possible but sounds more informal/colloquial and is much less common in Portugal than in Brazil. In standard European Portuguese, using the article is the default.

Why is sono used for sleep here and not the verb dormir?

Sono is a noun meaning sleep or sleepiness (the state of sleep).
Dormir is the verb to sleep.

In this sentence, sono is the subject of the verb é:

O meu sono (My sleep) é irregular (is irregular) …

If you used dormir, you would need a different structure, because verbs can’t directly be the subject in the same way nouns can. For example:

Durmo mal quando bebo muito café. = I sleep badly when I drink a lot of coffee.

So:

o meu sono = my sleep (as a thing, a pattern)
durmo = I sleep (action)

Why is it meu sono and not minha sono?

Possessives agree in gender and number with the noun they refer to, not with the person who possesses.

sono is a masculine singular noun in Portuguese.
So you must use the masculine singular possessive: meu.

Examples:

o meu sono (masculine singular)
a minha cama (feminine singular)
os meus horários (masculine plural)
as minhas noites (feminine plural)

Why is é (from ser) used instead of está (from estar)?

Ser and estar both translate as to be, but they’re used differently.

ser (é) is used for more permanent or characteristic descriptions.
estar (está) is used for temporary or current states.

Here, O meu sono é irregular quando bebo muito café describes a general, habitual relationship: whenever I drink a lot of coffee, my sleep tends to be irregular. That kind of pattern is normally expressed with ser.

You could say:

O meu sono está irregular porque ando a beber muito café.
This would sound more like a current, temporary situation: My sleep is irregular right now because I’ve been drinking a lot of coffee.

Why is there no eu in quando bebo muito café?

European Portuguese is a pro‑drop language: subject pronouns (eu, tu, ele, etc.) are often omitted because the verb ending already shows who the subject is.

bebo clearly indicates I drink.
So quando bebo muito café naturally means when I drink a lot of coffee.

You can add eu for emphasis or contrast:

quando eu bebo muito café – more like when I (in particular) drink a lot of coffee.

But in neutral sentences, leaving eu out is more natural.

Why is the present tense bebo used, and not something like a future or conditional?

The simple present in Portuguese is often used for general truths, habits, and regular patterns, just like in English.

O meu sono é irregular quando bebo muito café.
= My sleep is irregular when I drink a lot of coffee / whenever I drink a lot of coffee.

So:

bebo here doesn’t mean I am drinking right now.
It means whenever I drink, if I drink, as a general habit or repeated situation.

This is very similar to English When I drink a lot of coffee, my sleep is irregular.

Does quando here mean when or whenever?

It can mean both, depending on context. With the present tense and this kind of general statement, quando often has a habitual sense:

quando bebo muito café = when(ever) I drink a lot of coffee / any time I drink a lot of coffee.

If you wanted to talk about one specific occasion, you would normally make that clear with more context or a different tense. But as the sentence stands, it’s a general rule, so quando is close to whenever.

Why is it muito café and not muitos cafés?

Muito can work in two ways:

As an adverb (not agreeing in gender/number):
- bebo muito café = I drink a lot of coffee (a large amount, treated as a mass/uncountable noun).
As an adjective (agreeing in gender/number):
- bebo muitos cafés = I drink many coffees (many individual coffees/cups).

In your sentence, the focus is on the quantity of caffeine/coffee in general, so muito café (mass) is more natural.
If you wanted to stress the number of individual coffees, you could say muitos cafés.

Can I say bebo café muito instead of bebo muito café?

No. In this structure, muito must come before the noun it quantifies:

Correct: bebo muito café
Incorrect: bebo café muito (sounds wrong in standard Portuguese)

Positioning:

muito
- noun → muito café, muita água, muitos livros, muitas pessoas

Why is there no comma before quando?

In Portuguese, you normally do not put a comma before a restrictive adverbial clause introduced by quando when it directly follows the main clause:

O meu sono é irregular quando bebo muito café. ✅

A comma would be more likely if the quando‑clause came first:

Quando bebo muito café, o meu sono é irregular. ✅

So the sentence as given, without a comma, follows standard punctuation rules.

Could I say O meu sono fica irregular quando bebo muito café? What’s the difference?

Yes, that’s also correct, and it changes the nuance slightly.

é irregular = is irregular (describes the state in that situation)
fica irregular = becomes/gets irregular (focuses on the change caused by the coffee)

So:

O meu sono é irregular quando bebo muito café.
My sleep is irregular when I drink a lot of coffee.
O meu sono fica irregular quando bebo muito café.
My sleep gets/becomes irregular when I drink a lot of coffee.

Both are natural; fica highlights the effect more strongly.

How do you pronounce the tricky parts, like irregular, sono, and café, in European Portuguese?

Approximate European Portuguese pronunciation:

sono → SOH‑noo
- so like English so but shorter, with a pure o sound.
- no like no, again short.
irregular → roughly ee‑he‑goo‑LAR
- Initial i like ee in see.
- Single r between vowels sounds like a soft flap, similar to a very quick d in some accents.
- Final ‑ar is pronounced like ahr, not like English air.
café → ka‑FEH
- ca like ka in karma.
- fé with an open e, similar to fe in ferry, but shorter.
- Stress is on the last syllable: ca‑FÉ.