Breakdown of Não faço ideia de onde estão as chaves.
a chave
the key
onde
where
fazer ideia
to have a clue (não faço ideia = no idea)
Questions & Answers about Não faço ideia de onde estão as chaves.
Why is it faço ideia instead of tenho ideia?
Why do we need the preposition de before onde?
The phrase fazer ideia requires the preposition de to connect to the thing you are thinking about, similar to 'an idea of' in English. While English drops the preposition before 'where' ('I have no idea where'), Portuguese strictly keeps it, resulting in ideia de onde.
Why is the verb estão placed before the subject as chaves?
Unlike English, which strictly changes word order for indirect questions ('where are they?' vs 'I know where they are'), Portuguese freely allows subject-verb inversion here. Keeping the verb directly after the question word (onde estão as chaves) sounds much more natural to native speakers than onde as chaves estão.
Since não faço ideia expresses doubt or ignorance, why isn't the verb in the subjunctive (estejam)?
While expressing doubt usually triggers the subjunctive in Portuguese, indirect questions introduced by a question word (like onde, quem, or como) often take the indicative mood when referring to a concrete reality. The keys physically exist somewhere, so the indicative estão is standard and perfectly correct here.
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