Question 1

Why do we use que instead of do que in this comparison?

Accepted Answer

This is the focus of the current lesson: intra-subject comparison. When you compare two different qualities (adjectives) of the exact same subject (ele), you drop the do and only use que. If you were comparing two different subjects, like saying he is more extroverted than you are, you would use do que.

Question 2

Why is this sentence in the imperfect tense (Pensava, era) rather than the preterite?

Accepted Answer

The imperfect describes ongoing states or background context in the past. Pensava shows this was a continuous belief or impression you held over time. era is used because personality traits are ongoing characteristics, not single, completed actions.

Question 3

Since Pensava can mean both 'I thought' and 'he/she thought,' how do we know it means 'I thought' here?

Accepted Answer

In Portuguese, context is everything! Because the sentence explicitly uses the pronoun ele in the second half, it makes the most sense that a different person is doing the thinking in the first half. While it could technically mean 'She thought he was...', 'I thought' is the most common default when the subject is omitted in a conversational context like this.

Question 4

How does gender agreement work for the adjectives extrovertido and arrogante in this sentence?

Accepted Answer

Adjectives must agree with the subject they describe, which is the masculine ele. extrovertido takes the masculine -o ending to reflect this. However, arrogante is a uniform adjective because it naturally ends in -e, meaning it uses the exact same form for both masculine and feminine subjects.

Pensava que ele era mais extrovertido que arrogante.

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