Breakdown of O sabonete novo faz-me lembrar a casa da minha avó.
Questions & Answers about O sabonete novo faz-me lembrar a casa da minha avó.
In European Portuguese, object pronouns like me, te, lhe, nos often come after the verb in a normal affirmative sentence. This is called enclisis.
So:
- faz-me lembrar = literally makes me remember
- diz-me = tell me
- dá-lhe = gives him/her
The hyphen is part of the standard spelling when the pronoun is attached to the verb like this.
A form like me faz lembrar is much more associated with Brazilian Portuguese. In Portugal, faz-me lembrar is the normal choice here.
Literally, it means makes me remember.
In natural English, though, the best translation is usually reminds me.
So:
- faz-me lembrar = reminds me
- literal structure: makes me remember
This is a very common Portuguese way to express the idea of something reminding you of something else.
Me means me — the person who is being reminded.
So in:
O sabonete novo faz-me lembrar a casa da minha avó.
the soap is the thing causing the memory, and me is the person affected by it.
If you remove me, the sentence no longer clearly says who is being reminded.
Because Portuguese does not always match English prepositions.
In English, we say:
- remind someone of something
But in Portuguese, with fazer lembrar, the thing remembered often comes directly, without de:
- faz-me lembrar a casa da minha avó
So even though English needs of, Portuguese does not here.
This is a very common thing for learners to notice: you should not try to translate every preposition word-for-word.
Da is a contraction of:
- de + a = da
Here, de expresses a relationship like of:
- a casa da minha avó = the house of my grandmother = my grandmother’s house
So:
- de = of
- a minha avó = my grandmother
- da minha avó = of my grandmother
In European Portuguese, possessives are very often used with a definite article:
- a minha avó = my grandmother
- o meu pai = my father
- os meus amigos = my friends
So in Portugal, da minha avó is the normal form.
A learner coming from English may expect just my grandmother, with no article, but Portuguese often includes one.
Because adjectives in Portuguese often come after the noun.
So:
- o sabonete novo = the new soap
This is the most neutral, straightforward order.
You may also see o novo sabonete, but adjective position can change the nuance a little. Very roughly:
- o sabonete novo = the soap that is new
- o novo sabonete = the new soap, often with a slightly more contrastive or descriptive feel
For a learner, the important point is: noun + adjective is very common in Portuguese.
Yes, sabonete is masculine:
- o sabonete
- o sabonete novo
That is why both the article and the adjective are masculine singular:
- o = masculine singular
- novo = masculine singular
You cannot always tell gender just from the ending. Even though sabonete ends in -e, it is masculine, so this is something you simply learn with the noun: o sabonete.
Because a casa means the house.
Portuguese often uses the definite article in places where English may use a possessive structure more directly. So:
- a casa da minha avó
literally: the house of my grandmother
natural English: my grandmother’s house
The article a is completely normal here.
This is an important one.
In this sentence, we have:
- fazer lembrar = to make someone remember / to remind someone of
But when you talk about remembering something yourself, Portuguese often uses:
- lembrar-se de
For example:
- Lembro-me da casa da minha avó. = I remember my grandmother’s house.
So compare:
- Isto faz-me lembrar a casa da minha avó. = This reminds me of my grandmother’s house.
- Lembro-me da casa da minha avó. = I remember my grandmother’s house.
So yes, the structure changes.
Because avó and avô are different words:
- avó = grandmother
- avô = grandfather
The accent marks help show the stressed vowel quality:
- avó has ó
- avô has ô
So in this sentence, minha avó definitely means my grandmother, not my grandfather.