É importante valorizar a amizade.

In Portuguese, É importante + infinitive is a very common impersonal structure.

• É importante literally means “is important”, and the “it” (as in “it is important”) is not expressed in Portuguese.

• Portuguese often omits this dummy “it” subject that English needs. So:

  • É importante valorizar a amizade.
    ≈ It is important to value friendship.

So there’s no subject missing; Portuguese simply doesn’t need an explicit “it” here.

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

• Ser (é) is used for permanent, essential, or general characteristics, rules, and opinions.
• Estar (está) is used for temporary states or conditions.

In É importante valorizar a amizade:

• We’re expressing a general, timeless statement: valuing friendship in general is important.
• That’s why ser is used: é importante, not está importante.

Está importante would sound odd here; it would suggest a temporary, changeable state, which doesn’t fit.

The structure É importante + infinitive is the normal way to say “It is important to [do something]”.

• valorizar is the infinitive, meaning “to value”.
• This construction is impersonal; it doesn’t specify who is doing the action:
  • É importante valorizar a amizade.
    ≈ It is important to value friendship (in general / people should value friendship).

If you want to specify who should value friendship, you can change the structure:

• É importante valorizarmos a amizade.
  – It is important that we value friendship.
  (Uses the personal infinitive, valorizarmos, which includes “we”.)

• É importante que valorizemos a amizade.
  – It is important that we value friendship.
  (Uses the subjunctive, valorizemos.)

But the original sentence is correct and perfectly natural as a general statement.

Yes, É importante valorizarmos a amizade is also correct, but the meaning is a bit more specific:

• É importante valorizar a amizade.
  – General, impersonal: It is important to value friendship (in general; people should value it).

• É importante valorizarmos a amizade.
  – More specific: It is important that *we value friendship.*

The second sentence:

• Uses the personal infinitive (valorizarmos) that carries a subject: nós (we).
• Emphasises our responsibility in valuing friendship, not just “people in general”.

Both are grammatically correct; the original just keeps it more general.

In Portuguese, abstract nouns like amizade (friendship), amor (love), paz (peace) often take the definite article when we talk about them in general:

• a amizade = friendship (as a general concept)
• É importante valorizar a amizade.
  – It is important to value friendship.

Saying É importante valorizar amizade (without the article) is possible, but:

• It sounds less natural in European Portuguese.
• Without the article, it can feel a bit bare or stylistically off in this context.

So, in most cases, for general ideas, prefer:

• a amizade (friendship)
• o amor (love)
• a honestidade (honesty)

as in:

• É importante valorizar a honestidade.
• O amor é fundamental.

Valorizar has a few related meanings, depending on context:

1. To value / to appreciate / to give importance to

   • This is the meaning in the sentence:
     • É importante valorizar a amizade.
       → It is important to value/appreciate friendship.

2. To increase the value of something (often financial or symbolic)

   • A notícia valorizou as ações da empresa.
     – The news increased the company’s stock value.

3. Valorizar-se (reflexive) can mean:

   • To value yourself, to appreciate your own worth:
     • É importante a pessoa valorizar-se.
   • Or to increase in value:
     • A casa valorizou-se muito. – The house went up a lot in value.

In your sentence, it’s clearly moral/affective value: to treat friendship as something important, to appreciate it.

Yes, you can. Both are natural in European Portuguese, with a slightly different flavour:

• valorizar a amizade
  – A bit more compact and neutral, commonly used in formal and informal speech.

• dar valor à amizade
  – Slightly more colloquial and expressive, literally “to give value to friendship”.

Examples:

• É importante valorizar a amizade.
• É importante dar valor à amizade.

In most contexts, they can be used interchangeably; both sound natural.

Amizade is a feminine noun, so it takes the feminine article a:

• a amizade – the friendship
• uma amizade – a friendship

Clues to gender:

• Many nouns ending in -dade are feminine:
  • a amizade (friendship)
  • a cidade (city)
  • a liberdade (freedom)
  • a vontade (will/wish)

So:

• a amizade (not o amizade)
• This is why you also say:
  • É importante valorizar a amizade.

Yes, Valorizar a amizade é importante is correct and natural.

• É importante valorizar a amizade.
  – Very common structure; starts from the idea “It is important…”.

• Valorizar a amizade é importante.
  – Emphasises the action: Valuing friendship is important.

Both are fine in European Portuguese. The meaning is essentially the same; the difference is just in which part you highlight first.

Here’s an approximate IPA transcription for European Portuguese:

• É importante valorizar a amizade
  /ɛ‿ĩpuɾˈtɐ̃tɨ vɐluɾiˈzaɾ ɐ ɐmiˈzað(ɨ)/

Some notes:

• É – /ɛ/ like “e” in bet.
• importante – stress on -tan-: /ĩpuɾˈtɐ̃tɨ/
  
  • Final -e is very reduced: /ɨ/, almost like a very quick, neutral vowel.
• valorizar – stress on -zar: /vɐluɾiˈzaɾ/
• a amizade –
  
  • a is /ɐ/ (a relaxed, central “uh” sound).
  • amizade is /ɐmiˈzaðɨ/ in careful speech; final -de often sounds like a soft -ð(ɨ) (like the th in this, followed by a very short vowel).

Connected, it flows more like:

• É importante → /ɛ‿ĩpuɾˈtɐ̃tɨ/ (linking between é and importante)
• a amizade → /ɐ‿ɐmiˈzaðɨ/, with the two a’s almost merging.

É importante valorizar a amizade. is neutral in tone:

• Appropriate in spoken and written Portuguese.
• Can be used in everyday conversation, in a school essay, in a speech, etc.

Brazilian Portuguese:

• Brazilians would also say É importante valorizar a amizade.; the grammar and vocabulary are the same.
• The main difference is pronunciation, not structure.
• Brazilians might also commonly say:
  • É importante dar valor à amizade.
  • But that is also used in Portugal.

So the sentence works well in both European and Brazilian Portuguese.