Breakdown of O isolamento do paciente aumenta o sofrimento dele.
de
of / from / by (means of transport) / wearing (attire)
dele
his (forms: dela, deles, delas)
o
him/it (m)
aumentar
to increase
o paciente
the patient
o isolamento
the isolation
o sofrimento
the suffering
Questions & Answers about O isolamento do paciente aumenta o sofrimento dele.
Both isolamento and sofrimento end in -mento. How does this suffix work?
The suffix -mento is added to verbs to create nouns that describe an action or its result. It works just like '-ment' in English. For example, the verb isolar (to isolate) becomes isolamento, and sofrer (to suffer) becomes sofrimento. Nouns ending in -mento are almost always masculine, which is why they both use the masculine article o.
Is the word paciente also formed using a common suffix?
Why does the sentence use dele instead of seu for 'his'?
Because the possessive word seu can mean 'his', 'hers', or 'yours' in Portuguese, it often causes confusion. To be perfectly clear that they mean 'his', native speakers frequently use dele (a contraction of de plus ele, literally 'of him') and place it right after the noun.
Why do we say do paciente instead of just de paciente?
When talking about a specific person in Portuguese, you generally need to include the definite article. Here, do is the mandatory contraction of the preposition de (of) and the masculine article o (the). If you just said de paciente, it would sound like 'of patient' instead of 'of the patient'.
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