Breakdown of A mochileira arruma o saco‑cama na bagagem antes de apanhar o barco para a ilha.
Questions & Answers about A mochileira arruma o saco‑cama na bagagem antes de apanhar o barco para a ilha.
In Portuguese, many professions or “roles” have masculine and feminine forms:
- mochileiro = male backpacker
- mochileira = female backpacker
The sentence uses a mochileira (with feminine article a), so we know the backpacker is female.
If you don’t want to specify gender, in everyday European Portuguese people often still default to the masculine plural (os mochileiros) for mixed groups, but in the singular they usually choose either mochileiro or mochileira depending on the person’s gender.
Arrumar basically means “to put something in its place,” and from there it can mean:
- “to tidy (up), to put in order”
- arrumar o quarto – to tidy the bedroom
- “to pack, to put away”
- arrumar o saco‑cama na bagagem – to pack / put the sleeping bag into the luggage
In this sentence, arruma o saco‑cama na bagagem is naturally understood as “packs the sleeping bag in the luggage” rather than “tidies” it.
Other common verbs you might also hear are pôr, meter, guardar, or colocar (to put, to put away), but arrumar is very idiomatic here.
In Portuguese, you often don’t need a possessive when the owner is clear from context, especially with body parts and personal belongings.
Because the sentence starts with A mochileira, it’s obvious the saco‑cama belongs to her, so o saco‑cama is enough.
You can say:
- A mochileira arruma o seu saco‑cama…
but in European Portuguese o seu can sometimes be slightly formal or ambiguous (it can also mean his, her, their, your). In normal narration, just o saco‑cama is perfectly natural and usually preferred.
Saco‑cama is a compound noun literally meaning “bag-bed,” used for “sleeping bag.” In European Portuguese, the standard form is saco‑cama with a hyphen.
Pluralization follows the first element:
- singular: o saco‑cama
- plural: os sacos‑cama
The second part (cama) stays the same.
You may also see saco‑cama vs saco de cama or saco de dormir in some contexts, but saco‑cama is common and fully standard in Portugal for “sleeping bag.”
Na is the contraction of the preposition em + the feminine singular article a:
- em + a = na
So na bagagem literally = “in the luggage.”
You could think of arrumar o saco‑cama na bagagem as “to put the sleeping bag in(to) the luggage.” Here:
- o saco‑cama is the direct object of arrumar
- na bagagem is a prepositional phrase saying where it’s being put
Yes, you could say na mala, but there’s a nuance:
- bagagem – “luggage, baggage” as a general mass noun (everything you’re carrying)
- a bagagem = all your luggage
- mala – “suitcase, bag” as a specific item
- a mala = the suitcase (or a particular bag)
So:
- arrumar o saco‑cama na bagagem – put the sleeping bag with/among the luggage in general
- arrumar o saco‑cama na mala – put the sleeping bag inside a particular suitcase
Both are correct; context decides which sounds more natural.
In Portuguese, when antes is followed by a verb, you normally need de before an infinitive:
- antes de apanhar o barco – before catching the boat
The pattern is:
- antes de + infinitive
- depois de + infinitive
You can say antes de apanhar o barco, a mochileira… or keep it in the original order, but the de is required in standard Portuguese whenever antes comes directly before an infinitive.
The understood subject of apanhar is the same as the subject of the main clause: a mochileira.
So the full meaning is “before she catches the boat.” Portuguese often omits repeated subjects with infinitives when it’s clear from context.
If you needed a different subject, you’d usually state it:
- Antes de o namorado apanhar o barco, a mochileira…
“Before her boyfriend catches the boat, the backpacker…”
In European Portuguese, apanhar is the very common verb for “to catch/take” transport:
- apanhar o barco – catch/take the boat
- apanhar o comboio – take the train
- apanhar o autocarro – take the bus
In Brazil, people more often use pegar for this sense (pegar o ônibus, pegar o trem), and apanhar tends to sound more formal or old-fashioned, or it means “to get hit / beaten.”
So for Portugal, apanhar o barco is the natural everyday way to say “catch the boat.”
Prepositions of destination:
- para generally indicates destination or purpose: “to, towards”
- a can also indicate movement to a place, and a + a (article) contracts to à
For ilha:
- para a ilha – to the island (destination, fairly neutral/common)
- à ilha – also “to the island,” but a/à is more fixed in set expressions and with some place names; with a plain common noun like ilha, para a ilha is more usual in everyday speech.
You keep the article a because ilha is a common noun, not a proper place name like Portugal or Lisboa. So:
- vou para a ilha – I’m going to the island
- vou para Portugal – I’m going to Portugal (no article)
Yes. Both orders are natural:
- A mochileira arruma o saco‑cama na bagagem antes de apanhar o barco para a ilha.
- Antes de apanhar o barco para a ilha, a mochileira arruma o saco‑cama na bagagem.
Putting antes de apanhar o barco… at the beginning emphasizes the time condition (“Before catching the boat…”). Portuguese word order is fairly flexible for adverbial phrases like this, as long as the sentence remains clear.