Há muitos jovens desempregados.

Breakdown of Há muitos jovens desempregados.

muito
much / very
jovem
young
desempregado
unemployed

Questions & Answers about Há muitos jovens desempregados.

Since "young people" is plural, why is the verb Há singular instead of plural?
When the verb haver means "there is" or "there are," it is an impersonal verb. This means it has no subject and always stays in the third-person singular form (há), even when talking about a plural noun like jovens.
How do we know the gender of jovens if we want to make muitos and desempregados agree with it?
The singular word jovem can be either masculine (o jovem) or feminine (a jovem). When talking about young people in general as a mixed group, Portuguese defaults to the masculine plural. Because of this, the modifiers muitos and desempregados take the masculine plural endings.
What is the spelling rule for making jovem plural?
Portuguese nouns that end in -m in the singular form their plural by changing the -m to -ns. For example, jovem becomes jovens, just like homem becomes homens.
How is the word desempregados built?
It is an adjective that comes from the noun emprego (job). By adding the prefix des- (meaning "un-" or "without") and the past participle ending -ado, we get desempregado (unemployed). Here, an -s is added to match the plural noun jovens.

Learn Há muitos jovens desempregados and more in Portuguese

All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.

  • ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
  • ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
  • ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free