O alemão parece difícil para mim.

German seems difficult to me.

Breakdown of O alemão parece difícil para mim.

• para: for
• difícil: difficult
• parecer: to seem
• mim: me
• o alemão: the German

Questions & Answers about O alemão parece difícil para mim.

Why is there an article o before alemão? In English we just say German seems difficult, without the.

In Portuguese, names of languages normally take the definite article:

• O alemão – German
• O português – Portuguese
• O inglês – English

So O alemão parece difícil is the normal way to say German seems difficult.

You usually drop the article after some verbs like falar, estudar, aprender, saber:

• Falo alemão. – I speak German.
• Estou a aprender alemão. – I’m learning German.

But as a subject of the sentence, the language name almost always takes the article: O alemão parece difícil.

Why isn’t alemão capitalized like German is in English?

In Portuguese, names of languages, nationalities, and adjectives of nationality are written with a lowercase letter:

• o alemão – German (language)
• um alemão – a German (man)
• uma alemã – a German (woman)
• o inglês, o francês, o espanhol, etc.

So alemão is correctly written with a lowercase a, even at the start of a sentence you’d only capitalize it because it’s the first word, not because it’s a language name.

Is o alemão here “German (language)” or “the German (man)”?

On its own, o alemão can mean either:

• the German language, or
• the German man.

You understand which one it is from context.

In O alemão parece difícil para mim, the verb parece difícil (seems difficult) strongly suggests we’re talking about a language, not a person. You wouldn’t normally say a person seems difficult in this way.

If you wanted to make it crystal clear you’re talking about the language, you could also say:

• A língua alemã parece difícil para mim. – The German language seems difficult to me.

But native speakers usually don’t need that extra word; o alemão is enough from context.

Why is it parece and not something like parecer or parecem?

Parecer is the infinitive form (to seem). In the sentence, it’s conjugated in the present tense for ele (he/it), because the subject is o alemão (it = the German language):

Present tense of parecer (European Portuguese):

• eu pareço – I seem
• tu pareces – you (singular informal) seem
• ele / ela / você parece – he / she / you (formal) / it seems
• nós parecemos – we seem
• vocês / eles / elas parecem – you (plural) / they seem

So:

• O alemão parece difícil. – German seems difficult.
• As línguas parecem difíceis. – The languages seem difficult.

Parecer (infinitive) would be used in structures like:

• O alemão parece ser difícil. – German seems to be difficult.

What’s the difference between parece difícil and é difícil here?

Both are possible, but the nuance changes:

• O alemão parece difícil para mim.
  – seems / looks / appears difficult to me.
  This suggests it looks difficult from what you’ve seen so far; it’s more about your impression.

• O alemão é difícil para mim.
  – is difficult for me.
  This sounds more like a fact about your experience, especially if you’ve already tried to learn it.

So parece keeps it a bit more tentative or observational; é is more definite: it is difficult (for you).

Can I say O alemão parece-me difícil instead of parece difícil para mim? Is that more natural in European Portuguese?

Yes, and it’s very natural in European Portuguese:

• O alemão parece-me difícil.

Here, -me is a clitic pronoun meaning to me, attached to the verb. In European Portuguese, this pattern is extremely common and often sounds a bit more idiomatic than para mim in this kind of sentence.

All of these are correct, with slightly different style:

• O alemão parece-me difícil. – very typical European Portuguese.
• O alemão parece difícil para mim. – perfectly correct, a bit more “spelled out”.
• Para mim, o alemão parece difícil. – also very natural, with para mim at the start for emphasis.

Why is it para mim and not para eu?

After a preposition like para, you use the object/stressed pronoun mim, not eu, unless it comes right before a verb in the infinitive.

Use mim:

• para mim – for me / to me
• sem mim – without me
• de mim – of me / from me

In your sentence, para is directly followed by a pronoun, not by a verb, so it must be:

• O alemão parece difícil para mim.

You only see para eu when there is an infinitive verb right after it:

• É importante para eu aprender alemão. – It’s important for me to learn German.
• Isto é para eu fazer. – This is for me to do.

So: para mim (no verb after), but para eu aprender, para eu fazer, etc.

Is there any difference between para mim and a mim in this kind of sentence?

Both are grammatically possible, but para mim is more usual here.

• O alemão parece difícil para mim. – very natural.
• O alemão parece difícil a mim. – correct, but sounds a bit more formal/literary or used for contrast.

You might hear a mim when you really want to emphasize the contrast with someone else:

• A mim, o alemão parece difícil; a ele, não.
  – To me, German seems difficult; to him, it doesn’t.

In everyday speech, para mim is the default choice.

Could I drop para mim and just say O alemão parece difícil?

Yes. That’s a fully correct sentence:

• O alemão parece difícil.

Without para mim, it sounds more general: German seems difficult (in general), not just for you personally.

When you add para mim, you make it clear it’s your own perspective:

• O alemão parece difícil para mim. – For me, German seems difficult.

Can I move para mim to the beginning of the sentence?

Yes, that’s very common and sounds natural:

• Para mim, o alemão parece difícil.

Placing para mim at the beginning emphasizes your personal point of view (similar to English):

• For me, German seems difficult.

So you have three natural options:

• O alemão parece difícil. – German seems difficult.
• O alemão parece difícil para mim. – German seems difficult for me.
• Para mim, o alemão parece difícil. – As for me, German seems difficult.

What are the gender and number of alemão and difícil here?

In this sentence:

• alemão is masculine singular, agreeing with the implied noun (idioma / língua) which are masculine/feminine but here we just treat alemão itself as a masculine singular noun: o alemão.
• difícil is an adjective that is:
  • invariable in gender (same form for masculine and feminine),
  • but variable in number (singular/plural).

Forms of difícil:

• singular: difícil
• plural: difíceis

Examples:

• O alemão é difícil. – German is difficult.
• As línguas são difíceis. – The languages are difficult.
• O exame foi difícil. – The exam was difficult.
• As provas foram difíceis. – The tests were difficult.

Why does alemão have that ão ending, and how is it pronounced?

The ending -ão is very common in Portuguese masculine nouns and adjectives. It usually represents a nasal sound and is written with ã plus o.

In European Portuguese, alemão is roughly pronounced:

• something like ah-le-MOWN, with:
  • the last syllable stressed,
  • the ão nasalized (air goes partly through the nose),
  • the final -m you might expect in English isn’t pronounced; the n-like quality is in the vowel itself.

Other common words with -ão:

• pão – bread
• coração – heart
• português / alemão / espanhol (nationalities in masculine singular often end in -ão, -ês, -ol, etc.)

For the feminine, alemão becomes alemã (no o, and no tilde on the a).

How do I pronounce difícil in European Portuguese?

In European Portuguese, difícil is roughly:

• dee-FEE-seel (with the stress on FEE).

Details:

• di- – like dee, but in European Portuguese the i can sound a bit shorter and tenser.
• -fí- – stressed syllable, like fee, with an acute accent marking the stress.
• -cil – like seel, but again usually shorter and less “bright” than in English.

So the rhythm is: di-FÍ-cil.

What’s the difference between using parecer and achar in this kind of sentence?

Both verbs can express opinions, but they’re used slightly differently:

• parecer is more like to seem / to appear:

  • O alemão parece difícil. – German seems difficult.
    Feels a bit observational, based on what you see/hear/know.

• achar is more like to think / to find (in the opinion sense):

  • Acho o alemão difícil. – I think German is difficult.
    This explicitly attributes the opinion to you.

So:

• O alemão parece difícil para mim.
  – From my point of view, it seems difficult.

• Eu acho o alemão difícil.
  – I think German is difficult.

Both are very natural; parecer focuses on how something appears, achar on your personal judgment.

Is there a reflexive form parecer-se and does it change this sentence?

Yes, parecer-se (com) exists, but it has a different meaning: to look like / to resemble:

• Ele parece-se com o pai. – He looks like his father.
• Isto parece-se com alemão. – This looks like German.

In your sentence, you do not want the reflexive form. You just want parecer meaning to seem / appear:

• O alemão parece difícil para mim. – German seems difficult to me.

If you said O alemão parece-se difícil, it would sound wrong to native speakers in this context.