A Ana acha demasiado romântico quando alguém escreve poemas todos os dias.

Ana finds it too romantic when someone writes poems every day.

Breakdown of A Ana acha demasiado romântico quando alguém escreve poemas todos os dias.

• Ana: Ana
• o dia: the day
• escrever: to write
• quando: when
• achar: to find
• todo: every
• alguém: someone
• demasiado: too
• romântico: romantic
• o poema: the poem

Questions & Answers about A Ana acha demasiado romântico quando alguém escreve poemas todos os dias.

Why is there an A before Ana? In English we don’t say “The Ana”.

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

• A Ana = (literally) the Ana
• O João = the João

This does not sound rude or strange in Portuguese; it’s natural and often even feels more personal.

You can also say just Ana, without the article, but in everyday European Portuguese, using the article with names is extremely frequent, especially in speech and informal writing.

So:

• A Ana acha… = “Ana thinks/finds…”
• Both A Ana and Ana are grammatically correct; the version with A is just very typical in Portugal.

What does acha mean here, and how is it different from pensa?

Acha is the 3rd person singular of achar.

In this sentence:

• A Ana acha… ≈ Ana thinks / Ana finds / Ana considers…

Nuance:

• achar is often used for opinions, impressions, and judgments:
  • Acho este filme aborrecido. = “I find this film boring.”
• pensar is more literally “to think”, especially about reasoning, ideas, planning:
  • Penso muito no futuro. = “I think a lot about the future.”

Here, Ana is judging/evaluating something as too romantic, so achar is the natural verb:

• A Ana acha demasiado romântico… = “Ana thinks (that it is) too romantic…” / “Ana finds it too romantic…”

Why is it acha and not something like Ana acha + a subject pronoun?

Portuguese usually doesn’t use subject pronouns unless needed for emphasis or clarity.

• The verb ending -a in acha already shows it’s 3rd person singular (he/she/it/you-formal).
• The actual subject is written explicitly as A Ana, so there’s no need for ela (“she”).

So:

• A Ana acha... = “Ana thinks…”
• You could say Ela acha..., but that would mean just “She thinks…”, probably referring back to someone already mentioned.

Having A Ana plus a pronoun (A Ana, ela acha...) is possible but usually for emphasis or stylistic reasons, not the neutral form.

What exactly does demasiado mean? Is it the same as “very”?

Demasiado means “too (much)” in the sense of excessive, not just very.

• demasiado romântico = “too romantic” (more romantic than she likes / than is appropriate)
• muito romântico = “very romantic” (strong, but not necessarily negative)

In this sentence, A Ana acha demasiado romântico... implies:

• Ana thinks it’s overly romantic, somewhat too much for her taste.

Informally, in some regions people might blur the line a bit, but the core meaning is:

• demasiado → excess
• muito → intensity

Why is it demasiado romântico and not demasiada romântica, since Ana is female?

The adjective romântico here does not agree with Ana. It agrees with an implicit masculine noun, something like:

• um gesto romântico (a romantic gesture – masculine)
• um comportamento romântico (romantic behavior – masculine)

Portuguese often uses the masculine singular as a kind of neutral/abstract form:

• A Ana acha (isso) demasiado romântico.
  = “Ana finds (that) too romantic.”

Because the understood thing being judged (gesto, ato, comportamento, etc.) is masculine, the adjective is also in the masculine: romântico, not romântica.

So we do not make romântico agree with Ana, but with the thing that is too romantic.

Can demasiado go after the adjective, like in Spanish (romántico demasiado)?

No, the normal position in Portuguese is:

• demasiado + adjective
  • demasiado romântico (too romantic)
  • demasiado caro (too expensive)

Putting demasiado after the adjective (romântico demasiado) is either wrong or sounds very unusual in modern Portuguese.

For comparison:

• English: too romantic
• Portuguese: demasiado romântico (same order)

What exactly does quando alguém escreve poemas mean? Is it “when someone writes poems” or “whenever someone writes poems”?

It can mean both “when” and “whenever”, depending on context, and here it’s general/habitual:

• quando alguém escreve poemas todos os dias
  = “when someone writes poems every day”
  → really: “whenever someone writes poems every day”

So the idea is about a repeated or typical situation, not a single specific event:

• Whenever there is a person who writes poems every day, Ana finds that too romantic.

That’s why the present tense (escreve) is used: it describes a general habit.

Why is it alguém escreve and not something like alguém escrevem?

Alguém (“someone”) is grammatically singular, so the verb must also be singular:

• alguém escreve = someone writes
• ninguém sabe = nobody knows

Using the plural:

• alguém escrevem ❌ (incorrect)
• If you wanted plural, you’d need a plural subject, for example:
  • algumas pessoas escrevem = some people write

So the correct agreement is:

• alguém escreve (singular) ✔

Why is escreve in the present tense and not some kind of subjunctive after quando?

In Portuguese, quando can take either indicative or subjunctive, depending on meaning.

• Present indicative (here: escreve) is used for:
  • general facts, habits, routines
    → “whenever someone writes poems every day”
• Subjunctive tends to be used when talking about future, uncertainty, or conditions:
  • Quando alguém escrever poemas… = “When someone writes / will write poems…” (a specific future event, not a general habit)

In this sentence:

• We’re talking about habitual behavior that she finds too romantic, so present indicative (escreve) is the natural choice:
  • quando alguém escreve poemas todos os dias

Why is it poemas todos os dias and not todos os dias poemas?

The most neutral, natural order is:

• escreve poemas todos os dias
  • verb → direct object → time expression

You could move things around for emphasis:

• Todos os dias, alguém escreve poemas. (emphasizing every day)
• Alguém escreve, todos os dias, poemas. (more marked/stylistic)

But in simple, everyday Portuguese, verb + object + time is very common:

• escreve poemas todos os dias = “writes poems every day”

Keeping poemas before todos os dias makes the sentence flow naturally.

Why is it todos os dias and not todo o dia?

Both exist but they mean slightly different things:

• todos os dias = every day
  → frequency: it happens on each day
• todo o dia = all day (long)
  → duration: it lasts the whole day

In this sentence:

• escreve poemas todos os dias
  = “writes poems every day” (it happens every day, but not necessarily all day long)

If we said:

• escreve poemas todo o dia
  = “writes poems all day (long)” (a different meaning)

Is there any difference between todos os dias and cada dia?

Yes, there’s a nuance:

• todos os dias = the usual, neutral way to say every day.
• cada dia = literally each day, used less commonly here; it can sound a bit more emphatic or formal/literary in this context.

So:

• escreve poemas todos os dias is what you’d normally say.
• escreve poemas cada dia is possible, but less natural in everyday speech.

How is acha pronounced in European Portuguese?

In European Portuguese:

• acha is roughly pronounced “AH-sha”:
  • a = like “a” in “father”
  • ch = “sh” sound (like in English “she”)
  • final -a is usually pronounced, but in very fast casual speech it may be a bit reduced.

So:

• acha → [ˈa.ʃɐ] in IPA (EP)
• Not like English “atcha”, but like “AH-sha”.

How do you pronounce the nasal vowels in Ana, romântico, and alguém?

In European Portuguese:

• Ana → roughly “AH-nɐ”
  
  • The A is nasalized: kind of like “AH-nuh”, but with the vowel slightly nasal.
• romântico → roughly “ho-MÃN-ti-ku”
  
  • mã is nasal: like “mu” in French “mur”, but with “a”.
• alguém → roughly “al-GÃỸ”
  
  • -ém is a nasal diphthong, a bit like “eng” in English “eng” but as one nasal vowel-glide.

You don’t need to be perfect at nasal vowels at first, but you should know that:

• A vowel followed by m or n (and not forming a separate syllable) is often nasalized in Portuguese (especially in -em, -ão, -am endings, etc.).