Todavia, nem tudo está perdido.

Questions & Answers about Todavia, nem tudo está perdido.

Why use todavia instead of mas here?
Todavia is a more formal or literary word for "however" or "nevertheless." While mas (but) works in almost any situation, words like todavia, contudo, and no entanto elevate your vocabulary and are very common in written Portuguese or formal speech.
Why is it nem tudo instead of não tudo for "not everything"?
In Portuguese, nem is used instead of não before words like tudo (everything) or todos (everyone). Saying não tudo sounds unnatural. You can think of nem tudo as meaning "not even everything" to help remember this fixed phrasing.
Why do we use está (from estar) rather than é (from ser) with perdido?
We use está because being "lost" here describes a current state or condition, not a permanent characteristic. The verb estar combined with a past participle like perdido is the standard way to describe the resulting state of a situation.
Why does perdido end in the masculine singular form here?
Because perdido acts as an adjective describing a state, it must agree in gender and number with the subject. The subject is tudo (everything), which is an invariable pronoun that is grammatically treated as masculine singular. If the subject were feminine, like a esperança (the hope), the sentence would end with perdida.

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