O lençol ficou torcido depois de dormir.

The sheet got twisted after sleeping.

Breakdown of O lençol ficou torcido depois de dormir.

• depois de: after
• ficar: to become
• dormir: to sleep
• o lençol: the sheet
• torcido: twisted

Questions & Answers about O lençol ficou torcido depois de dormir.

What exactly does ficou mean here? Is it “was”, “became”, or something else?

In this sentence, ficou (3rd person singular preterite of ficar) is best understood as “ended up / became / got”.

• O lençol ficou torcido ≈ “The sheet ended up twisted / got twisted”.
• It describes a change of state and the result of an action (sleeping on it).

If you translated it as just “was twisted”, you’d lose that idea of change. English often uses “got” or “ended up” to convey what ficou expresses here.

Why not just say “O lençol estava torcido”? What’s the difference between ficou and estava?

Both are possible, but they highlight different things:

• O lençol ficou torcido depois de dormir.
  Focus: the change caused by sleeping. The sheet became twisted as a result of sleeping.

• O lençol estava torcido depois de dormir.
  Focus: the state of the sheet afterwards, without explicitly highlighting the change.

In practice:

• ficou = result of an action, a transition into that state.
• estava = description of a state at a given time.

So the original sentence is slightly more dynamic and cause‑and‑effect oriented.

Is torcido here a past participle (like “twisted”) or an adjective (like “twisted/wrinkled”)? Does it agree with lençol?

Formally, torcido is the past participle of torcer (“to twist”).
In this sentence, it functions as an adjective describing the sheet’s state.

• O lençol (masculine singular)
• torcido (masculine singular to agree with lençol)

If the noun changed, torcido would change too:

• A toalha ficou torcida. – The towel got twisted. (feminine singular)
• Os lençóis ficaram torcidos. – The sheets got twisted. (masculine plural)
• As toalhas ficaram torcidas. – The towels got twisted. (feminine plural)

So yes, it agrees in gender and number with the noun it describes.

In English I’d probably say “The sheet got wrinkled,” not “twisted.” Is torcido the usual word, or is there a better one?

You can use torcido, but for “wrinkled/creased” sheets a more usual option is:

• O lençol ficou amarrotado / todo amarrotado.
• O lençol ficou todo enrugado.

Nuances:

• torcido – literally twisted/warped (maybe partly off the mattress, twisted on itself).
• amarrotado – crumpled up, rumpled (very common for clothes and sheets).
• enrugado – wrinkled (like skin or fabric with many wrinkles).

So a very natural sentence in European Portuguese:
O lençol ficou todo amarrotado depois de dormir. – “The sheet ended up all wrinkled after sleeping.”

Who is doing the dormir? Why is it just depois de dormir with no subject?

In depois de dormir, the verb dormir is in the infinitive, and the subject is understood from context.

• Here, it strongly implies “after (someone) slept on it” – usually after I / we slept.
• Portuguese often omits pronouns when they’re obvious from context.

If you want to be explicit about the subject, you can say:

• depois de eu dormir – after I sleep / after I slept
• depois de nós dormirmos – after we sleep / after we slept

But in casual speech, depois de dormir on its own is very natural when context makes it clear who slept.

I’ve seen forms like dormirmos attached to infinitives in European Portuguese. Could I say “depois de dormirmos” or “depois de dormir‑mos” here?

Yes, in European Portuguese you have a few options with slightly different styles:

1. depois de dormir
   – Neutral, subject understood from context.

2. depois de dormirmos
   – Inflected infinitive; explicitly marks “we” as the subject:
   “after we slept / after we sleep”.

3. depois de dormir‑mos (with ‑mos attached)
   – This is an older/very formal spelling. In modern spelling you normally write depois de dormirmos as one word.

So, for everyday modern EP, if you want to specify “we”:

• O lençol ficou torcido depois de dormirmos. – The sheet got twisted after we slept.

Why does the sentence use the definite article o in o lençol? Could I just say lençol ficou torcido…?

In Portuguese, you normally must use the definite article when you refer to a specific known object:

• O lençol ficou torcido. – The sheet got twisted. (a particular sheet)

If you drop the article:

• Lençol ficou torcido.
  This sounds wrong or at best extremely telegraphic (like a note or a headline).

You can omit the article when you talk about things in general:

• Lençol é mais fino do que cobertor. – A sheet is thinner than a blanket. (sheets in general)

But here we’re clearly talking about that specific sheet on the bed, so o lençol is required.

What’s the difference between lençol, cobertor, and manta?

These are different bed items:

• o lençol – the sheet (usually the flat sheet you lie on or cover yourself with).
• o cobertor – a blanket, typically heavier/warm, often wool or similar.
• a manta – a throw / lighter blanket, often smaller or decorative, but in practice also used for warmth.

Example:

• O lençol ficou amarrotado, e o cobertor caiu da cama.
  The sheet got wrinkled, and the blanket fell off the bed.

Can I move “depois de dormir” to the beginning of the sentence?

Yes. Both word orders are correct:

• O lençol ficou torcido depois de dormir.
• Depois de dormir, o lençol ficou torcido.

Placing Depois de dormir at the start is slightly more emphatic on the time (“After sleeping...”), but the meaning is the same. Don’t forget the comma when the time phrase comes first.

Could I use foi instead of ficou, like “O lençol foi torcido depois de dormir”?

No, that would sound wrong in this context.

• foi torcido would normally be a passive voice:
  • O lençol foi torcido por alguém. – The sheet was twisted by someone.

Here we’re not describing someone intentionally twisting the sheet. We’re describing the resulting state after sleeping. For that, Portuguese uses ficar + past participle/adjective, not ser/foi:

• ✅ O lençol ficou torcido depois de dormir. – It ended up twisted.
• ❌ O lençol foi torcido depois de dormir. – Suggests a deliberate twisting action done to it.

How do you pronounce lençol and ficou in European Portuguese?

Approximate guides (EP pronunciation):

• lençol – [lẽˈsɔl]

  • len‑: nasal “len” (like French “lin”, but with an “e” sound).
  • ç: “s” sound.
  • ‑ol: close to English “awl” in “awl”, but shorter.

• ficou – [fiˈko(w)]

  • fi‑: like “fee”.
  • ‑cou: like “co” in “cold”, but with a bit of a “w” glide at the end.

In connected speech:
O lençol ficou torcido depois de dormir
→ roughly: oo len‑SAWL fee‑KOH tor‑SEE‑doo de‑POYSH d(ee) dor‑MEER (with unstressed vowels shortened and softened).