Breakdown of Temos de usar a esfregona no quarto cujo chão está sujo.
estar
to be (temporary / location)
em
in / on / at
o quarto
the bedroom / the room
sujo
dirty
usar
to use / to wear
ter de
to have to
o chão
the floor
cujo
whose (cujo, cuja, cujos, cujas)
a esfregona
the mop
Questions & Answers about Temos de usar a esfregona no quarto cujo chão está sujo.
Why does this sentence use Temos de usar instead of Temos que usar?
In normative European Portuguese, ter de is used to express an external obligation or necessity, meaning you must do something (we are obliged to use the mop). On the other hand, ter que is used to express task possession, meaning you literally have a thing to do (for example, tenho muito que fazer). Because this sentence describes a strict necessity to clean the floor, temos de is the correct form.
Does the word cujo (whose) agree with the room or the floor?
Is it grammatically correct to say cujo o chão?
No, it is always incorrect to place a definite article like o or a right after cujo. Learners often make this mistake by overthinking the translation, but cujo acts as both the relative pronoun and the determiner. Always follow cujo directly with the noun it modifies.
Why use está instead of é for the dirty floor?
This is a quick refresher on temporary versus permanent states. You use estar (está) because being dirty (sujo) is a temporary condition that will be fixed once you use the mop (a esfregona). Using ser (é) would imply the floor is inherently or permanently dirty by design.
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