Breakdown of O Pedro é romântico, mas não exagera nas mensagens.
Questions & Answers about O Pedro é romântico, mas não exagera nas mensagens.
In European Portuguese, it’s very common to use the definite article (o / a / os / as) before people’s first names:
- O Pedro – literally “the Pedro”
- A Maria – “the Maria”
This is normal and neutral in Portugal. It often sounds friendly or familiar, and you’ll hear it all the time in speech.
You can say Pedro without o, but in everyday European Portuguese O Pedro is more common in this kind of sentence. In Brazilian Portuguese, using the article with names is much less common and can sound marked or regional, but in Portugal it’s standard.
Portuguese has two verbs for “to be”: ser and estar.
- ser (here: é) is used for more permanent, inherent characteristics.
- estar is used for temporary states or conditions.
Being romântico (romantic) here is presented as part of Pedro’s personality, a general characteristic, so ser is used:
- O Pedro é romântico = Pedro is a romantic person (by nature).
If you said:
- O Pedro está romântico hoje.
= Pedro is being romantic today (but this might be unusual for him).
That would stress a temporary mood, not a stable trait.
Yes, romântico is the standard adjective meaning romantic, usually in the emotional / love-related sense:
- A person who likes gestures of affection, romantic messages, surprises, etc.
- It can also describe things like um filme romântico (a romantic film), um jantar romântico (a romantic dinner).
So O Pedro é romântico means “Pedro is (a) romantic (kind of guy)” — he tends to be affectionate, sentimental, maybe likes to express his feelings.
Yes, in Portuguese the conjunction mas (but) is normally preceded by a comma when it connects two clauses:
- O Pedro é romântico, mas não exagera nas mensagens.
- Ela quer sair, mas está cansada.
So the comma before mas is standard and expected in this kind of sentence.
You would not write:
O Pedro é romântico mas não exagera nas mensagens.(this is usually considered incorrect in standard punctuation).
Portuguese often drops subject pronouns when the verb ending already shows who the subject is. The verb form exagera tells us it’s ele / ela / você (third person singular), and from context we know we’re talking about Pedro.
So:
- O Pedro é romântico, mas não exagera nas mensagens.
= O Pedro é romântico, mas (ele) não exagera nas mensagens.
Adding ele is grammatically correct:
- … mas ele não exagera nas mensagens.
But in natural speech and writing, it’s common to omit ele if there’s no ambiguity.
Literally, yes: exagerar nas mensagens is “to exaggerate in the messages.” But the natural English meaning here is:
- “to overdo it with the messages / texts”
- “to go over the top in his messages”
So the whole sentence means something like:
- “Pedro is romantic, but he doesn’t go overboard with his messages.”
It implies he sends romantic messages, but not too many and not in an excessive, annoying, or over-the-top way.
Nas is a contraction of the preposition em (in / on / at) + the feminine plural definite article as (the):
- em + as = nas
So:
- nas mensagens = in the messages / in the texts
Other similar contractions:
- em + a = na (feminine singular) → na mensagem (in the message)
- em + o = no (masculine singular) → no livro (in the book)
- em + os = nos (masculine plural) → nos livros (in the books)
Portuguese almost always contracts em + article like this in normal use.
Mensagem (message) is a feminine noun in Portuguese:
- singular: a mensagem (the message)
- plural: as mensagens (the messages)
In your sentence:
- nas mensagens = em + as mensagens = in the messages / in the texts
Gender is largely lexical in Portuguese. Many nouns ending in -agem are feminine:
- a viagem (the trip) → as viagens
- a paisagem (the landscape) → as paisagens
- a passagem (the ticket / passage) → as passagens
So a mensagem / as mensagens follows this pattern.
Yes, you can say both, but there’s a nuance:
O Pedro é romântico.
→ Describes a trait: he is a romantic person (adjective used predicatively).O Pedro é um romântico.
→ Sounds more like “He is a romantic” as a kind of type, almost like a label or role. It can sound a bit more emphatic or stylistic, especially in writing or storytelling.
In everyday conversation, O Pedro é romântico is the more neutral, common way to say he’s a romantic person.
Both are possible, but they focus on slightly different things:
não exagera nas mensagens
→ Focus on his behaviour: he doesn’t overdo it; he doesn’t go too far in his messages.
The verb exagerar (to exaggerate / overdo things) is used for actions.não é exagerado nas mensagens
→ Uses the adjective exagerado (exaggerated / over-the-top).
This sounds more like you’re describing his style or way of being in messages.
In this particular sentence, não exagera nas mensagens is more natural and idiomatic to talk about how often or how intensely he messages someone.
Approximate European Portuguese pronunciation (IPA):
- O Pedro é romântico, mas não exagera nas mensagens.
/u ˈpeðɾu ɛ ʁoˈmɐ̃tiku | maʃ nɐ̃w̃ ɨʒɐˈʒɛɾɐ nɐʃ mẽˈzaʒẽjʃ/
Some key points:
- O → [u], like the “oo” in “too” but shorter.
- Pedro → PE‑dro, stress on PE; d is often soft, almost like English “th” for many speakers.
- romântico → stress on MÂN: ro‑MÂN‑ti‑co; ã is a nasal vowel.
- mas → [maʃ], ending with a soft sh sound.
- não → [nɐ̃w̃], nasal vowel, roughly like “now” with a nasal quality.
- exagera → e‑zha‑JE‑ra, stress on JE; j / g before e, i is a zh sound.
- nas → [naʃ], again ending in a soft sh sound.
- mensagens → roughly men‑ZÁ‑zhensh, stress on ZÁ, with a nasal vowel in the last syllable and a final sh sound.
You don’t need perfect IPA to be understood; focusing on stress (PÉ‑dro, ro‑MÂN‑ti‑co, men‑ZÁ‑gens) and remembering the final s often sounds like sh in European Portuguese will help a lot.