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Questions & Answers about De onde é o amigo?
Why does the sentence start with De instead of putting it at the end like in English?
In English, we often put "from" at the end of a question: "Where is the friend from?" In Portuguese, you can never leave a preposition hanging at the end of a sentence. The word De (from) must stay right in front of the question word onde (where). You are literally asking, "From where is the friend?"
What is the word order for this type of question?
When asking an open question, the structure is usually: Question Word + Verb + Subject. In this sentence, that gives us the question phrase De onde, followed by the verb é, and finally the subject o amigo. Notice that Portuguese just swaps the subject and verb—you never need helper words like "do" or "does".
Why do we use é here instead of está?
Will Portuguese people pronounce De onde as two clear words?
Sometimes, but in natural spoken Portuguese, native speakers usually blend the two words together so they sound like a single word: donde. You will hear this very often!