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
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?