Learn Portuguese (Portugal): O que é aquilo?

O que é aquilo?

What is that?

Breakdown of O que é aquilo?

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Questions & Answers about O que é aquilo?

Why do we use O que for "what" instead of just Que?

In Portuguese, when "what" stands alone to ask about a thing, we usually say O que (literally "the what"). You would typically only use Que by itself if it comes directly before a noun, like in Que carro? (What car?).

I've seen words like isso for "that". Why use aquilo here?

Aquilo specifically means "that thing over there" (far from both you and the person you are talking to). It is also a "neuter" word, which is perfect here because you are asking what the object is, so you don't know its gender yet! If the object was near the person listening to you, you would use isso instead.

Does the word order change because this is a question?

Not at all! A great thing about Portuguese is that the basic word order often stays exactly the same in questions as it does in regular statements. Here we just put our question word (O que) at the front, followed by our verb (é), and then the subject (aquilo).

Why do we use é instead of está?

We use é (from the verb ser) because we are asking to identify what an object fundamentally is. The other "to be" verb, estar, is used for temporary states or locations, not for identifying the nature of a thing.