Breakdown of Custa-me a trincar comida sólida.
a
to / at (direction)
a comida
the food
me
me
custar a
to be hard (for someone) to do
trincar
to bite (into something hard)
sólido
solid
Questions & Answers about Custa-me a trincar comida sólida.
Why is there an "a" before "trincar"? Shouldn't it just be "Custa-me trincar"?
You can actually say either! Traditionally, the verb custar directly takes an infinitive as its subject, making Custa-me trincar perfectly correct. However, in European Portuguese, it is extremely common and natural to insert the preposition a before the infinitive. This is a special quirk of how this verb is used in Portugal.
Since the translation is "I find it hard", why isn't the verb conjugated as "custo"?
In this specific structure, the verb custar is used in the third-person singular. The person experiencing the difficulty isn't the subject; instead, they are the indirect object, represented here by the pronoun -me. Literally, the structure translates to something closer to "Biting solid food is hard to me."
Can this verb ever match the person, like "Eu custo a trincar"?
Yes! That is another valency anomaly with this verb. In informal European Portuguese, speakers often personalize it and say Custo a trincar (literally "I cost to bite"). Both the impersonal version used in this sentence and the personal version are widely used in everyday speech to mean the exact same thing.
What is the difference between "trincar" and "morder"?
While morder is the general word for "to bite", trincar specifically implies biting into something crisp, crunching, or chewing off a piece. Because the sentence specifically mentions comida sólida (solid food), trincar is the most natural verb to describe breaking it down with your teeth.
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