Breakdown of Este agrafador é meu, mas os auscultadores são teus.
ser
to be
mas
but
meu
my (m/f/pl: meu, minha, meus, minhas)
teu
your (informal, m/f/pl: teu, tua, teus, tuas)
este
this (este, esta, estes, estas)
o
him/it (m)
o agrafador
the stapler
os auscultadores
the headphones
Questions & Answers about Este agrafador é meu, mas os auscultadores são teus.
Why is it é meu and são teus instead of é o meu and são os teus?
This ties directly into this lesson! When a possessive pronoun comes immediately after the verb ser (to be) to state who owns something (the predicative position), we generally drop the definite article. We say é meu to simply mean it is mine. If you added the article and said é o meu, it would change the nuance to mean it is the one that is mine, usually to distinguish it from a group of other staplers.
Are agrafador and auscultadores the standard words for stapler and headphones?
Yes, these are the standard everyday terms in European Portuguese. As a B2 learner, you might consume media from different regions, so it is good to know that these are distinctly European. In Brazil, you would hear grampeador and fone de ouvido instead.
Why use the demonstrative Este for the stapler, but just the definite article os for the headphones?
Using Este agrafador indicates the stapler is physically close to the speaker. Switching to just os auscultadores (the headphones) instead of esses auscultadores (those headphones) implies the headphones are the only ones relevant to the conversation right now, so they do not need to be pointed out with a demonstrative word.
Just to refresh, why is it teus if the word yours refers to a single person?
Remember that possessives in Portuguese always agree in gender and number with the object being owned, not the person who owns it. Because auscultadores is a masculine plural noun, the possessive must take the masculine plural form teus, even though it belongs to just one person.
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