Breakdown of A nossa convivência é difícil por causa do desleixo dele.
ser
to be
do
of the / from the (do, da, dos, das)
nosso
our (m/f/pl: nosso, nossa, nossos, nossas)
dele
his (forms: dela, deles, delas)
difícil
difficult
por causa de
because of (due to)
a convivência
the coexistence
o desleixo
the sloppiness
Questions & Answers about A nossa convivência é difícil por causa do desleixo dele.
The word convivência translates to "coexistence", but is it only used for people living in the same house?
Not necessarily! While it often refers to living under the same roof (like flatmates or partners), convivência broadly means the daily interaction between people sharing any space or context, such as colleagues at work. It captures the general idea of how well people "get along" day-to-day.
Why use o desleixo dele instead of o seu desleixo for "his sloppiness"?
Using dele (of him) after the noun is the most natural way to indicate "his" in European Portuguese, especially to avoid ambiguity. Because seu can mean "his", "hers", or "yours" (when addressing someone formally), native speakers heavily prefer dele to be perfectly clear about who they are referring to.
Why do we need the do in por causa do desleixo? Couldn't we just say por causa de desleixo?
The fixed phrase por causa de (because of) requires you to contract the preposition de with the article of the noun that follows it. Since we are talking about a specific instance of sloppiness (his), the noun requires the definite article o. Therefore, de + o contracts into do.
This lesson is about nem sequer (not even). How could I add it to this sentence to emphasize that our coexistence isn't just difficult, but impossible?
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