Breakdown of Foi com o folião que tu dançaste no Carnaval?
ser
to be
tu
you
em
in / on / at
com
with
dançar
to dance
que
who / which / that (relative)
o folião
the reveler
o Carnaval
the carnival
Questions & Answers about Foi com o folião que tu dançaste no Carnaval?
Why does com come right after Foi in this sentence?
In Portuguese, you cannot end a sentence with a preposition like we do in English. When emphasizing a part of the sentence using a cleft structure, any preposition that belongs to the main verb (here, dançar com, meaning to dance with) must be pulled to the front, right before the emphasized noun. So, the structure becomes Foi com o folião que... rather than leaving the preposition at the end.
Could I say É com o folião que tu dançaste instead of starting with Foi?
Is it also correct to say Foi o folião com quem tu dançaste?
Yes! That is a relative clause structure using com quem (with whom), and it means exactly the same thing. However, this sentence uses a cleft structure (Foi [preposition + noun] que), which is extremely common in spoken Portuguese to add emphasis without needing to use quem.
What exactly does the word folião mean?
Why is it no Carnaval rather than just em Carnaval?
In Portuguese, traditional festivals and holidays almost always take the definite article. Since Carnaval is a masculine noun, we use o Carnaval. Combined with the preposition em (at/in), it contracts to no (em + o).
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