Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): A tua irmã é muito generosa com os amigos. - Your sister is very generous with her friends.

You can sometimes hear or see the article dropped (e.g. tua irmã) in songs, headlines, very informal speech, or to sound more “poetic”, but in normal everyday European Portuguese, you should learn and use the form A tua irmã.

Why is it tua and not teu?

The possessive agrees in gender and number with the thing owned, not with the owner.

irmã (sister) is feminine singular
So you must use the feminine singular form of teu → tua

Some examples:

o teu livro – your book (book = livro, masculine singular)
a tua irmã – your sister (sister = irmã, feminine singular)
os teus amigos – your (male/mixed) friends (friends = amigos, masculine plural)
as tuas amigas – your (female) friends (friends = amigas, feminine plural)

Can I say A sua irmã é muito generosa com os amigos instead of A tua irmã…?

Grammatically, yes, but it changes the level of formality and who you are talking to.

tua is used with tu (informal “you”)
sua is used with você (more formal “you”), or with ele/ela (he/she)

So:

Talking informally to a friend:
- A tua irmã é muito generosa com os amigos.
  (You are using tu with this person.)
Talking more formally (or to someone you don’t know well):
- A sua irmã é muito generosa com os amigos.
  (You are using você with this person.)

In Portugal, tu is common among friends, family, and young people. Você can sound distant, formal, or even slightly cold in some contexts.

Why is it irmã with a tilde (ã)? What does that change?

The ã indicates a nasal vowel. You don’t fully pronounce a separate “n” after it; instead, you let air pass through your nose while saying the vowel.

irmã roughly sounds like: eer-MUN (with the final vowel nasal, not a clear “a”)
The tilde (~) on ã always signals nasalization in Portuguese:
- mãe, irmã, irmão, pão, coração

So irmã is not pronounced like irma in English; the final sound is nasal.

Why do we use é and not está?

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

ser (é) is used for permanent or defining characteristics
estar (está) is used for temporary states or conditions

Being generous is seen as a more stable personal trait, so you use ser:

A tua irmã é muito generosa. – Your sister is (by nature) very generous.

If you said A tua irmã está muito generosa, it would sound like:

“Your sister is being very generous (right now / lately),” suggesting a temporary or unusual behavior.

Why is it generosa (with -a) and not generoso?

Adjectives in Portuguese agree with the gender and number of the noun they describe.

irmã is feminine singular
So the adjective must also be feminine singular: generosa

Compare:

O teu irmão é muito generoso. – masculine singular
A tua irmã é muito generosa. – feminine singular
Os teus irmãos são muito generosos. – masculine plural
As tuas irmãs são muito generosas. – feminine plural

What exactly does muito do here in muito generosa?

Here muito is an adverb meaning “very”:

generosa = generous
muito generosa = very generous

Some patterns:

muito
- adjective:
  - muito generosa – very generous
  - muito simpático – very nice
  - muito alto – very tall

As an adverb, muito does not change form for gender or number in this position; it stays muito before adjectives, regardless of masculine/feminine or singular/plural.

Can I move muito and say A tua irmã é generosa muito com os amigos?

No. That word order is not natural in Portuguese.

The normal position is:

[subject] + [verb] + muito + [adjective] + [rest of the sentence]

So:

✅ A tua irmã é muito generosa com os amigos.
❌ A tua irmã é generosa muito com os amigos.

You can sometimes put muito after the adjective in very colloquial speech for emphasis, but usually alone, not followed by more information, e.g.:

Ela é generosa, muito! (spoken, emphatic: “She’s generous, very!”)
Not appropriate inside this simple sentence.

Why is it com os amigos and not something like para os amigos?

The preposition com means “with”, and it’s used to show how someone behaves towards other people:

ser generoso com alguém – to be generous with someone
ser simpático com os vizinhos – to be nice to the neighbors
ser paciente com as crianças – to be patient with the children

If you said para os amigos, it would usually suggest a direction or purpose (“for the friends”), not the idea of treating them generously.

So generosa com os amigos ≈ “generous with her friends / towards her friends.”

Why is it os amigos and not just amigos?

Portuguese often uses a definite article (o, a, os, as) where English does not.

Here:

os amigos literally: the friends
But in English we’d normally just say with friends / with her friends.

In Portuguese, you usually say:

com os amigos – with (the) friends
com os colegas – with (the) colleagues

Using the article here is the natural default.
Dropping it (com amigos) is possible but would sound more abstract or incomplete in this specific sentence.

Does os amigos here mean “her friends” or just “friends” in general?

Grammatically, os amigos just means “the friends”, without a possessive.

But in a sentence like:

A tua irmã é muito generosa com os amigos.

context usually implies “her friends”, not all friends in the world. Native speakers fill in the possessive meaning from context.

If you want to be very explicit, you can say:

A tua irmã é muito generosa com os amigos dela. – Your sister is very generous with her friends.

However, this sounds a bit heavier; the shorter version is often preferred when the context is clear.

How would this sentence change in the plural, for example “your sisters are very generous with their friends”?

You need to change:

the article and possessive (a tua → as tuas)
the noun (irmã → irmãs)
the verb (é → são)
the adjective (generosa → generosas)

Result:

As tuas irmãs são muito generosas com os amigos.

If you also wanted to make amigos explicitly “their (female) friends”, you could say:

As tuas irmãs são muito generosas com as amigas delas.

Is there a more informal or colloquial word for irmã in Portugal?

Yes. In European Portuguese, a very common informal word for irmã is mana.

For example:

A tua mana é muito generosa com os amigos.

This sounds friendly and informal, often used within families or among close friends when talking about someone’s sister. In more neutral or formal contexts, stick with irmã.