Confirma se o microfone está ligado antes da reunião, por favor.

Check if the microphone is on before the meeting, please.

Breakdown of Confirma se o microfone está ligado antes da reunião, por favor.

• por favor: please
• estar: to be
• antes de: before
• se: if
• a reunião: the meeting
• ligado: on
• o microfone: the microphone
• confirmar: to check

Questions & Answers about Confirma se o microfone está ligado antes da reunião, por favor.

Why is it confirma and not confirme?

Confirma is the affirmative imperative form used with tu in European Portuguese.

So this sentence is addressing one person in an informal singular way:

• Confirma... = tell you (tu) to confirm/check

If you wanted a more formal version, usually with você, o senhor, or a senhora, you would say:

• Confirme se o microfone está ligado antes da reunião, por favor.

A useful thing to notice: por favor makes the sentence more polite, but it does not make it grammatically formal by itself.

Why is there no subject pronoun like tu?

Portuguese often drops subject pronouns because the verb form already shows who the subject is.

So instead of saying:

• Tu confirma...

Portuguese normally just says:

• Confirma...

In commands, leaving out the pronoun is especially common and natural. Adding tu would usually sound emphatic, contrastive, or unnatural in many everyday contexts.

What does se mean here?

Here, se means if or whether.

So confirma se... means something like:

• check whether...
• make sure that...
• confirm if...

This is not the reflexive se. It is introducing an indirect yes/no question:

• se o microfone está ligado = whether the microphone is on

Why do we say está ligado here?

Está ligado describes a state: the microphone is on, connected, or activated.

• estar + ligado = to be switched on / connected

That is different from the command liga o microfone, which means:

• turn on the microphone

So:

• Confirma se o microfone está ligado = check whether the microphone is on
• Liga o microfone = turn on the microphone

With devices, ligado can mean:

• switched on
• connected
• active

The exact nuance depends on context.

Why is it ligado and not ligada?

Because ligado agrees with o microfone, and microfone is masculine.

• o microfone está ligado
• a câmara está ligada

In Portuguese, adjectives and participle-like forms used adjectivally must agree in gender and number with the noun they describe.

Examples:

• o computador está ligado
• a televisão está ligada
• os microfones estão ligados

Why is it o microfone? I thought nouns ending in -e could be either gender.

That is exactly the issue: nouns ending in -e can be masculine or feminine, so you often have to learn the gender together with the noun.

In this case, it is:

• o microfone

So you should learn it as a unit:

• o microfone
• um microfone
• o microfone está ligado

There is no simple ending rule that would let you predict the gender with certainty here.

Why do we say antes da reunião and not antes de a reunião?

Because de + a contracts to da.

• antes de + a reunião → antes da reunião

This contraction is normal and expected in Portuguese.

So:

• antes da reunião = before the meeting

Compare:

• antes do almoço = before lunch
• antes da aula = before class

But before a verb, you use antes de with no contraction:

• antes de começar
• antes de entrar na reunião

Is confirma se natural in Portugal, or would people say something else?

Yes, confirma se is understandable and natural enough, especially in instructions.

That said, in Portugal you may also hear:

• Verifica se o microfone está ligado...
• Vê se o microfone está ligado...

The differences are roughly:

• confirmar se = make sure / confirm whether
• verificar se = check whether
• ver se = see if / check if, often more conversational

In technical or workplace contexts, verifica se is very common.
So your sentence is fine, but verifica se o microfone está ligado may sound slightly more straightforward to some speakers.

Why is por favor at the end, and why is there a comma before it?

Por favor is flexible in position. It can appear at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end.

All of these are possible:

• Por favor, confirma se o microfone está ligado antes da reunião.
• Confirma, por favor, se o microfone está ligado antes da reunião.
• Confirma se o microfone está ligado antes da reunião, por favor.

Putting por favor at the end is very common and natural.

The comma is used because por favor is acting like a parenthetical polite expression. In informal writing, people sometimes omit the comma, but using it is standard and clear.

How would I make this sentence more formal?

The easiest formal change is:

• Confirme se o microfone está ligado antes da reunião, por favor.

That uses the more formal imperative associated with você or polite address.

In a professional setting in Portugal, you might also see slightly more neutral or institutional wording such as:

• Verifique se o microfone está ligado antes da reunião, por favor.
• Por favor, confirme se o microfone está ligado antes da reunião.

If you are speaking directly to a colleague you know well, confirma is fine.
If you are writing to a client, manager, or unknown person, confirme or verifique is safer.

How is this sentence pronounced in European Portuguese?

A broad European Portuguese pronunciation would be approximately:

• Confirma se o microfone está ligado antes da reunião, por favor.
• IPA: /kũˈfiɾmɐ s‿u mi.kɾuˈfɔn(ɨ) ʃˈta liˈɣaðu ˈɐ̃t(ɨ)ʃ dɐ ʁɨuˈnjɐ̃w puɾ fɐˈvoɾ/

A few useful pronunciation notes:

• está often sounds close to shtá in European Portuguese
• unstressed vowels are often reduced, so confirma does not sound fully like every written vowel is pronounced clearly
• reunião has stress on the final nasal syllable -ão
• por favor in Portugal usually has a softer, more reduced sound than many learners expect

If you are aiming for a natural Portugal accent, vowel reduction is one of the biggest things to notice.