Breakdown of A rapariga não lhe está a mostrar nada do guarda-roupa.
a rapariga
the girl
não
not / no
do
of the / from the (do, da, dos, das)
estar
to be (temporary / location)
nada
nothing / anything
lhe
to him / to her / to you (formal)
mostrar
to show
o guarda-roupa
the wardrobe
Questions & Answers about A rapariga não lhe está a mostrar nada do guarda-roupa.
Why is lhe placed before está instead of after it?
The negative word não acts as a magnet, pulling the pronoun lhe before the auxiliary verb está. Because of this, you cannot say não está-lhe a mostrar. However, you are allowed to attach it to the main verb at the end, as in não está a mostrar-lhe, though putting it before the auxiliary is very common and natural.
Does lhe mean him or to him in this sentence?
It means to him. The pronoun lhe is an indirect object pronoun. While in English we often just say showing him, Portuguese grammar expresses it as showing something to someone.
Why are both não and nada used if that makes a double negative?
Why does the sentence use do instead of just de before guarda-roupa?
do is the mandatory contraction of the preposition de (from) and the masculine definite article o (the). We need the article here because we are talking about a specific wardrobe, meaning from the wardrobe, rather than just wardrobe in general.
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