Breakdown of Pela sua expressão, ele é muito interessado e só quer dinheiro.
ser
to be
e
and
ele
he
muito
much / very
Questions & Answers about Pela sua expressão, ele é muito interessado e só quer dinheiro.
Wait, doesn't interessado mean 'interested'? Why is it translated as 'self-seeking'?
This is a great example of an adjective changing meaning depending on the verb! When used with estar (ele está interessado), it means 'he is interested' in a topic or event. But when used with ser (ele é interessado), it describes a personality trait: being opportunistic, calculating, or driven by self-interest, often regarding money.
Why do we use Pela to mean 'By' in 'By his expression'?
The preposition por (which merges with a to become pela) is often used to show the basis for a judgment or the means by which you figure something out. In this context, it translates well to 'judging by' or 'based on'.
Since sua can mean his, her, or your, how do we know it means 'his' expression here?
Context! Because the second part of the sentence explicitly uses the subject pronoun ele (he), we can safely deduce that the expression belongs to him. In Portuguese, it is very common to rely on the rest of the sentence to clarify ambiguous possessives like seu and sua.
If I changed é to está, would the sentence still make sense?