Breakdown of Eu uso o spray antes de dormir, para não acordar com o nariz entupido.
Questions & Answers about Eu uso o spray antes de dormir, para não acordar com o nariz entupido.
In European Portuguese, you normally use the definite article (o, a, os, as) with concrete, specific objects, especially things like medicines or products you regularly use.
- Eu uso o spray ≈ “I use the (nasal) spray” – a specific spray you both know about (your usual one).
- Eu uso spray is not impossible, but it sounds more like “I use spray (in general)” and is much less natural in this context.
So here, o spray works like o medicamento, o creme, o xarope: it’s the particular product you habitually use.
Both are grammatically possible, but they’re not equally common:
- antes de dormir (literally: “before sleeping”) is the usual, natural way. When the subject of dormir is the same as the subject of the main verb (eu), Portuguese often just uses de + infinitive with no explicit subject.
- antes de eu dormir literally “before I sleep” is more explicit and can sound a bit more formal or emphatic in everyday speech. You’d use it more if you needed to make the subject very clear or to contrast subjects.
In a simple sentence like this, antes de dormir is the default, idiomatic choice.
In Portuguese, certain prepositions must be followed by de when they come before an infinitive verb. Antes is one of them:
- antes de fazer – before doing
- antes de sair – before leaving
- antes de dormir – before sleeping
Antes dormir is ungrammatical. You always need de here: antes de + infinitive.
All three options are possible, but they have different feels:
para não acordar
- Most neutral, everyday choice here.
- Subject eu is understood from context (it’s the same as in eu uso).
- Very natural in speech and writing.
para eu não acordar
- More explicit: literally “so that I don’t wake up”.
- Often used when you want to clearly mark the subject, or when there might otherwise be ambiguity.
para não acordar-me / para não me acordar
- Uses the reflexive pronoun me.
- In European Portuguese, you more often see para não me acordar (pronoun before the infinitive in spoken language), or para não acordar-me (pronoun after and attached: more formal/written).
- Perfectly correct, but a bit heavier. In practice, many speakers simply say para não acordar.
In everyday European Portuguese, with a clear subject from the first clause, para não acordar is the most natural and economical.
Yes, but in practice the line is blurry, especially in European Portuguese.
acordar can mean:
- “to wake (someone) up”:
- Vou acordar o meu filho. – I’m going to wake my son up.
- “to wake up (yourself)” (intransitive):
- Acordo às sete. – I wake up at seven.
- “to wake (someone) up”:
acordar-se is explicitly reflexive: “to wake oneself up”, also “to wake up”:
- Eu acordo-me às sete.
In European Portuguese:
- Both acordar and acordar-se are used for “wake up (yourself)”.
- Many people simply say acordo às sete (no -me) in everyday speech.
So para não acordar easily means “so I don’t wake up”, even without -me.
In Portuguese, não almost always comes before the verb it negates.
- Finite verb: Eu não acordo cedo. – I don’t wake up early.
- Infinitive: para não acordar – in order not to wake up.
If you also use a reflexive pronoun with an infinitive, you have a few possibilities in European Portuguese, all with não before the verb:
- para não acordar-me
- para não me acordar
- (spoken) para eu não me acordar (with explicit eu)
But the key rule: não goes before the main verb form, not after it.
In Portuguese, body parts usually take a definite article, not a possessive pronoun, when it’s obvious whose body part it is:
- Lavei as mãos. – I washed my hands.
- Doí-me a cabeça. – My head hurts.
- com o nariz entupido – with my nose blocked.
Adding meu is possible (com o meu nariz entupido), but it sounds a bit heavy or overly explicit here. Native speakers prefer o nariz in this context because the subject is already eu, so ownership is clear.
Yes. Entupido is the past participle of entupir (“to clog, to block”) and is used as an adjective:
- nariz entupido – blocked/stuffy nose
- canos entupidos – clogged pipes
- pia entupida – blocked sink
In European Portuguese, nariz entupido is the standard, everyday way to say “stuffy nose”.
You may also hear nariz tapado (also very common, same meaning). Nariz congestionado sounds more technical/medical.
Com literally means “with”, and Portuguese uses com + noun/adjective very often to express a state or condition, like English “with …”:
- com fome – hungry (literally “with hunger”)
- com frio – cold
- com sono – sleepy
- com o nariz entupido – with a blocked nose
Using another preposition like de here (de nariz entupido) is not idiomatic for this meaning. The natural structure is com + body part + adjective.
The comma separates two infinitive clauses that each describe a different aspect of the action:
- antes de dormir – when you use the spray (time)
- para não acordar com o nariz entupido – why you use the spray (purpose)
In European Portuguese, you normally put a comma between coordinated clauses like this, especially when they have different functions (time vs purpose). It’s not just a stylistic comma; it reflects the sentence structure.
You could also rephrase without a comma, but that would usually involve restructuring the sentence, for example:
- Uso o spray antes de dormir para não acordar com o nariz entupido.
Here many people would still keep the comma, but it’s a bit more optional.
You could, but it doesn’t mean the same thing.
Eu uso o spray antes de dormir…
- Simple present.
- Describes a habit or routine: “I use the spray (every night / usually) before sleeping.”
Eu estou a usar o spray antes de dormir…
- Progressive form in European Portuguese (estar a + infinitive).
- Focuses on an action that is ongoing in a limited period, like “Right now I’m using the spray (these days) before I go to bed.”
In the original sentence, the idea is a regular habit, so eu uso o spray is the natural choice.