Breakdown of A casa da mãe é bonita.
ser
to be
a casa
the house
bonito
beautiful
do
of the / from the (do, da, dos, das)
Questions & Answers about A casa da mãe é bonita.
Why do we use da here instead of just de?
In Portuguese, there is no apostrophe-s ('s) to show possession. Instead, you say "the house of the mother". The word da is a contraction of the preposition de (of) and the feminine definite article a (the). Together, they mean "of the".
Would it be wrong to say A casa de mãe?
Yes, it would sound unnatural. In European Portuguese, we almost always use a definite article (o or a) before nouns referring to people, like family members or names. Because we need the article a for mãe, it must combine with de to form da.
Why is the verb é used instead of está for "is"?
Does the adjective bonita agree with the house or the mother?