O Pedro esqueceu-se de fechar a porta.

Pedro forgot to close the door.

Breakdown of O Pedro esqueceu-se de fechar a porta.

• Pedro: Pedro
• a porta: the door
• fechar: to close
• esquecer-se de: to forget

Questions & Answers about O Pedro esqueceu-se de fechar a porta.

Why is there O before Pedro? In English we do not say the Peter.

In European Portuguese, it is very common to use the definite article before a person’s first name:

• O Pedro = Pedro (male)
• A Ana = Ana (female)

This does not usually translate as the Pedro in English; it is just a normal, natural way of referring to someone. It can sometimes add a slight nuance of familiarity or specificity (the Pedro we both know), but in everyday speech it is mostly just part of the standard grammar in Portugal.

Brazilian Portuguese uses the article with names much less, so you will more often hear just Pedro in Brazil.

Can I leave out the article and just say Pedro esqueceu-se de fechar a porta?

Yes. Both are grammatically correct:

• O Pedro esqueceu-se de fechar a porta.
• Pedro esqueceu-se de fechar a porta.

In Portugal, many speakers naturally say O Pedro, but Pedro without the article is also possible, and some regions or speakers prefer it. Leaving out the article can sometimes feel a bit more formal or “neutral,” but the difference is subtle and both versions are fine.

What does -se in esqueceu-se mean?

-se is a reflexive pronoun. It shows that the subject and the “receiver” of the action are the same person:

• esqueceu = (he) forgot (something / someone)
• esqueceu-se = (he) forgot (himself) in relation to something, i.e. he forgot to do something or about something

In European Portuguese:

• esquecer (without se) is usually used with a direct object:
  • Esqueceu a chave. = He forgot the key.
• esquecer-se de is very commonly used when you forget to do something or about something:
  • Esqueceu-se de fechar a porta. = He forgot to close the door.
  • Esqueci-me do livro. = I forgot about the book.

So in this sentence, esqueceu-se tells us that Pedro failed to perform an action he should have done.

Why is the pronoun after the verb (esqueceu-se) and not before (se esqueceu)?

This is a key difference between European Portuguese (EP) and Brazilian Portuguese (BP).

In European Portuguese, in a normal affirmative sentence like this, unstressed pronouns usually come after the verb (enclisis):

• O Pedro esqueceu-se de fechar a porta.

In Brazilian Portuguese, the usual order is before the verb (proclisis):

• O Pedro se esqueceu de fechar a porta.

In Portugal, Pedro se esqueceu sounds clearly Brazilian. In standard European Portuguese, you should say Pedro esqueceu-se.

Can I say Pedro esqueceu de fechar a porta without se? Is it wrong?

It is not strictly wrong, but it sounds different depending on the variety of Portuguese:

• In Brazilian Portuguese, esquecer de + infinitive (without se) is very common:
  • Pedro esqueceu de fechar a porta. (BP)
• In European Portuguese, the natural, everyday form is esquecer-se de + infinitive:
  • O Pedro esqueceu-se de fechar a porta. (EP)

In Portugal, esquecer de fechar a porta (without se) can sound either:

• more formal/literary, or
• influenced by Brazilian usage.

If your target is Portuguese from Portugal, it is safer and more idiomatic to use esquecer-se de + infinitive in sentences like this.

Why is it esquecer-se de and not esquecer-se a or esquecer-se fechar?

In Portuguese, many verbs require a specific preposition before another verb in the infinitive. Esquecer-se is one of them, and it typically uses de:

• esquecer-se de + infinitive
  
  • Esqueceu-se de ligar. = He forgot to call.
  • Esquecemo-nos de estudar. = We forgot to study.

You cannot drop the preposition here, and you cannot replace it with a:

• ❌ esquecer-se fechar a porta
• ❌ esquecer-se a fechar a porta

The correct pattern is esquecer-se de + infinitive.

Why is fechar not conjugated? Why not esqueceu-se de fechou a porta?

After de (in esquecer-se de), you must use the infinitive, not a conjugated verb:

• esqueceu-se de fechar a porta = he forgot to close the door

In Portuguese, when one verb is dependent on another with a preposition like de, a, para, etc., the second verb usually stays in the infinitive:

• Começou a chover. = It started to rain.
• Tentou abrir a janela. = He tried to open the window.
• Esqueceu-se de fechar a porta. = He forgot to close the door.

Fechou is the past tense form (“he closed”), which cannot appear in that position:

• ❌ esqueceu-se de fechou a porta (ungrammatical)

Why do we say a porta and not da porta or à porta?

Here, a porta is a direct object of fechar:

• fechar a porta = to close the door

No preposition is needed between the verb and its object, so we just have the definite article a:

• a (definite article, feminine singular) + porta (door)

Compare with other meanings:

• da porta = de + a porta → of the door / from the door
  
  • O som vinha da porta. = The sound came from the door.
• à porta = a + a porta (contracted) → at the door
  
  • Há alguém à porta. = There is someone at the door.

In fechar a porta, we simply need the door as an object, so we use a porta.

Does this sentence mean he never closed the door, or that he closed it but does not remember?

Esquecer-se de + infinitive normally means that the person failed to do the action:

• O Pedro esqueceu-se de fechar a porta.
  → He did not close the door (he forgot to do it).

If you want to say he did close the door but now doesn’t remember having done it, you would use a different structure, e.g.:

• O Pedro esqueceu-se de que tinha fechado a porta.
  = Pedro forgot that he had closed the door.

So, by default, the original sentence implies the door was left open.

What is the difference between esqueceu-se de fechar a porta and esqueceu-se da porta?

They express different ideas:

1. Esqueceu-se de fechar a porta.

   • He forgot to close the door (he did not perform the action).

2. Esqueceu-se da porta.

   • Literally: He forgot about the door.
   • This is more like “he didn’t think about the door / he neglected the door.”
   • It does not explicitly say what he failed to do; context would tell you (close it, lock it, bring it, etc.).

So esquecer-se de fechar a porta is more specific: the forgotten action is closing the door.

Could we just say Esqueceu-se de fechar a porta. without O Pedro?

Yes. Portuguese often drops the subject when it is clear from context:

• (Ele) esqueceu-se de fechar a porta. = He forgot to close the door.
• (O Pedro) esqueceu-se de fechar a porta. = Pedro forgot to close the door.

If the person has already been mentioned or is obvious from the situation, you can omit ele or the name:

• Esqueceu-se de fechar a porta. (We know from context who we are talking about.)

But if you want to introduce the information clearly and unambiguously, you include the subject (O Pedro, Ele, etc.).

How do you pronounce esqueceu-se, and where is the stress?

In European Portuguese, esqueceu-se is pronounced roughly:

• [esh-keh-SEU-s(ə)]

Details:

• es- → like English esh (soft sh sound)
• -que- → keh (like ke in ketchup, but shorter)
• -ceu → SEU (rhymes roughly with English say-oo compressed into one syllable)
• -se → a very weak sə or almost just an s at the end of the word

The main stress falls on -ceu-:

• es-que-CEU-se