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A foto ficou escura.

A foto ficou escura.
The photo came out dark.
From Lesson 440:Portugal prático (o talho, o comprovativo)·Portuguese (Portugal)

Breakdown of A foto ficou escura.

escuro
dark
ficar
to become
a foto
the photo

Questions & Answers about A foto ficou escura.

Why is ficou used here instead of a literal translation for "came out"?
While you likely first learned ficar as "to stay" or "to remain," it is also the standard verb in Portuguese to express the final result or outcome of a process. When talking about how a photo, a recipe, or a project "turned out" or "came out," you will almost always use ficar.
What is the difference between saying A foto ficou escura and A foto estava escura?
Ficou escura specifically highlights the result of an action: the picture was taken, and the resulting image came out dark. If you use estava escura, you are using the imperfect tense to describe a state at a specific moment in the past (e.g., the photo was dark before you edited it), rather than focusing on the outcome of taking the picture.
Why does the adjective escura end in "-a" if the noun foto ends in an "-o"?
Foto is an abbreviation of the word fotografia, which is a feminine noun. In Portuguese, shortened words retain the gender of the original full word. Therefore, foto is feminine, requiring both the feminine article (a) and the feminine form of the adjective (escura).

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