Breakdown of O incêndio florestal acabou, mas o fumo ainda incomoda os vizinhos.
Questions & Answers about O incêndio florestal acabou, mas o fumo ainda incomoda os vizinhos.
Acabou is the 3rd person singular of acabar in the pretérito perfeito (simple past). It corresponds roughly to English “ended” or “has ended”, depending on context.
- O incêndio florestal acabou
= The forest fire ended / has ended.
We don’t need tinha acabado (pluperfect: had ended) because we’re not contrasting two past moments; we’re just stating a finished past event that is relevant now.
Acabou-se is also possible in some contexts, but it sounds more like “it’s over” / “it has run out”, often used with things like food, patience, etc. For a neutral factual statement about a fire ending, acabou on its own is the most natural.
In Portuguese, adjectives usually come after the noun:
- incêndio = fire
- florestal = forest-related
So incêndio florestal literally means “forest fire”, with the adjective florestal following the noun.
Other possibilities:
- incêndio na floresta = fire in the forest (more descriptive, less of a set phrase)
- fogo florestal = also used, but incêndio florestal is more standard/formal when talking about wildfires.
Putting the adjective before the noun (florestal incêndio) is not idiomatic here.
In Portugal:
- fumo is the normal, everyday word for smoke.
- fumaça exists but is much less common and can sound a bit literary or old-fashioned in European Portuguese.
In Brazil:
- fumaça is the most common everyday word for smoke.
- fumo is strongly associated with tobacco (e.g. fumo de rolo).
So for European Portuguese, in this sentence:
- o fumo ainda incomoda os vizinhos
is exactly what you’d expect to hear.
In European Portuguese, fumo can refer to:
- Smoke from a fire: o fumo do incêndio (the smoke from the fire)
- Smoke from cigarettes: o fumo do cigarro (cigarette smoke)
Context usually makes it clear. If you need to be explicit, you can say:
- fumo de cigarro = cigarette smoke
- fumo tóxico = toxic smoke
- fumo do incêndio = smoke from the fire
Ainda here means “still”:
- o fumo ainda incomoda os vizinhos
= the smoke still bothers the neighbors.
Typical placement is before the main verb:
- ainda incomoda (still bothers)
Other examples:
- Ela ainda está em casa. – She is still at home.
- Eles ainda não chegaram. – They still haven’t arrived.
In standard prose, you don’t move ainda around much; ainda + verb is the usual pattern. Moving it can sound marked or poetic, so o fumo ainda incomoda is the natural order.
Incomodar covers a range of meanings around bothering / disturbing / causing discomfort. It can refer to:
Physical discomfort:
- Esta cadeira incomoda-me. – This chair is uncomfortable for me.
- O fumo incomoda os vizinhos. – The smoke is bothering the neighbors (physically, e.g. eyes, breathing).
Emotional or mental annoyance:
- Isso incomoda-me um bocado. – That bothers me a bit.
So it’s somewhere between “bother”, “disturb”, or “cause discomfort”, depending on context. Here it’s mainly physical discomfort.
The verb agrees with the subject, not the object.
- Subject: o fumo (singular)
- Verb: incomoda (3rd person singular)
- Object: os vizinhos (plural)
So:
- O fumo (singular) incomoda os vizinhos (plural).
= The smoke bothers the neighbors.
If the subject were plural, the verb would change:
- Os incêndios florestais incomodam os vizinhos.
(The forest fires bother the neighbors.)
→ incêndios is plural, so incomodam is plural.
- vizinhos = neighbors
- os vizinhos = the neighbors
The definite article os is natural here: we’re talking about a specific, known group of neighbors (the people living near the fire).
Could you say incomoda vizinhos without the article? Grammatical, but much less natural in this context. It would sound more like “bothers neighbors” in a general, abstract way.
To talk about your own neighbors, you’d normally still use the article:
- Os meus vizinhos são simpáticos. – My neighbors are nice.
- O fumo incomoda os meus vizinhos. – The smoke bothers my neighbors.
- mas = but (conjunction)
- mais = more / plus (adverb, adjective, or noun)
They sound similar but are different words:
- mas → /maʃ/ (the final s sounds like sh in European Portuguese)
- mais → /majʃ/ (with a diphthong like eye)
In writing, you normally put a comma before mas when it introduces a contrast between two clauses:
- O incêndio florestal acabou, mas o fumo ainda incomoda os vizinhos.
- Está frio, mas não está a chover.
So the comma here is standard and expected.
Incêndio has an acute accent on the ê:
- incêndio → /ĩˈsẽ.dju/ in European Portuguese (approx.)
The accent shows:
Stress: the stress falls on cên (the middle syllable):
in-CÊN-dio, not IN-cen-dio or in-cen-DIO.Vowel quality: the ê is a closed e sound (like the e in English “they” but shorter), though it’s also nasal here because of the n and following consonant.
Syllable division:
- in-cên-dio (3 syllables in writing; phonetically often realised as something like two beats: [ĩˈsẽ.dju]).
You could say:
- O incêndio florestal terminou, mas o fumo ainda incomoda os vizinhos.
- O incêndio florestal parou, mas o fumo ainda incomoda os vizinhos.
All would be understood, but there are nuances:
- acabou – very neutral and common for events finishing; fits perfectly.
- terminou – slightly more formal, often interchangeable with acabou.
- parou – focuses more on the action stopping rather than the event being completed; might suggest the fire stopped burning (e.g. it was put out), not necessarily emphasizing completion in the same way.
In everyday European Portuguese, acabou is probably the most natural choice here.