Question 1

Since this lesson is about até (even), how would I add it to this sentence to say 'Even a tireless employee...'?

Accepted Answer

You would place até directly before the noun phrase you want to focus on. To say 'Even a tireless employee usually has a lot of ambition', you would say: Até um funcionário incansável costuma ter muita ambição.

Question 2

How does costuma ter translate to 'usually has'?

Accepted Answer

The verb costumar means 'to be in the habit of' or 'to usually do'. In Portuguese, it is very common to pair costumar with an infinitive verb (like ter) rather than using an adverb like normalmente. So, costuma ter literally translates to 'is in the habit of having'.

Question 3

How can I figure out the meaning of incansável if I haven't seen it before?

Accepted Answer

You can break it down into its parts. It comes from the verb cansar (to tire). The prefix in- makes it negative, and the suffix -ável is just like the English '-able'. Together, they form a word that literally means 'untirable' or 'tireless'.

Question 4

Why is it muita and not muito?

Accepted Answer

Here, muita is acting as an adjective describing the amount of ambição (ambition). Since almost all Portuguese nouns ending in -ção are feminine, the word for 'a lot' must match its gender, changing from muito to muita.

Um funcionário incansável costuma ter muita ambição.

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