Breakdown of Os acordos franco-portugueses estão a ser discutidos hoje.
ser
to be
estar
to be (temporary / location)
hoje
today
discutir
to discuss
o acordo
the agreement
franco-português
Franco-Portuguese
Questions & Answers about Os acordos franco-portugueses estão a ser discutidos hoje.
Why is the adjective franco-portugueses instead of francos-portugueses?
How would this compound adjective change if the subject was feminine, like "the relations" (as relações)?
The rule for gender agreement is the same as for plurals: only the second element changes to match the noun. So, "the Franco-Portuguese relations" would be as relações franco-portuguesas. The first part, franco, always remains in its default masculine singular form.
estão a ser discutidos is a complex verb phrase. What grammatical structure is being used here?
This is the present continuous in the passive voice. It combines the standard European Portuguese continuous structure (estar a + infinitive, which here gives us estão a ser meaning "are being") with the past participle of the main verb (discutidos meaning "discussed").
Why does discutidos take the masculine plural -os ending instead of just ending in -o?
In passive voice constructions that use the verb ser (to be), the past participle acts like an adjective and must agree in both gender and number with the subject of the sentence. Because os acordos is masculine and plural, the past participle discutido changes to discutidos.
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