Breakdown of A linhagem que investigou o meu avô materno é famosa.
ser
to be
meu
my (m/f/pl: meu, minha, meus, minhas)
a
to / at (direction)
o
him/it (m)
o avô
the grandfather
que
who / which / that (relative)
famoso
famous
investigar
to investigate
materno
maternal
a linhagem
the lineage
Questions & Answers about A linhagem que investigou o meu avô materno é famosa.
Why is o meu avô materno placed after the verb? Doesn't this word order mean the lineage investigated my grandfather?
In Portuguese relative clauses starting with que, the subject is frequently placed after the verb. Here, o meu avô materno is the subject of investigou. While English strictly uses Subject-Verb-Object order, Portuguese allows this inversion for stylistic flow, especially when the subject is a long phrase.
How can I grammatically tell which noun is doing the investigating?
In this specific sentence, grammar alone doesn't tell you, because both a linhagem and o meu avô materno are third-person singular, matching the verb investigou. You have to rely on context: a person investigates a lineage, not the other way around. If a sentence were genuinely ambiguous, Portuguese speakers would stick to standard Subject-Verb-Object order to make the meaning clear.
Could I use normal word order and say que o meu avô materno investigou instead?
Why is famosa feminine if the noun right before the verb é is the masculine avô materno?
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