Learn Portuguese (Portugal): Foi com o folião que tu dançaste no Carnaval? - Was it the reveler you danced with at the carnival?

Foi com o folião que tu dançaste no Carnaval?

Was it the reveler you danced with at the carnival?

Breakdown of Foi com o folião que tu dançaste no Carnaval?

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?

You can, but Foi is generally preferred here to match the past tense of the main verb (dançaste). In Portuguese cleft sentences, the verb ser usually matches the tense of the main action. Since the dancing happened in the past, we use the past tense 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?