Breakdown of O telemóvel do irmão não é novo.
ser
to be
não
not / no
novo
new / young
do
of the / from the (do, da, dos, das)
Questions & Answers about O telemóvel do irmão não é novo.
Why is the sentence ordered as "O telemóvel do irmão" instead of something like "O irmão's telemóvel"?
Portuguese doesn't have an apostrophe "s" to show ownership like English does. Instead, you always have to flip the phrase around to say "the phone of the brother" using the preposition de (of).
Where does the word do come from in this sentence?
The word do means "of the". To say "of the brother", you need the preposition de (of) and the masculine word for "the", which is o (because irmão is masculine). In Portuguese, de + o always squish together to form the contraction do.
Does the adjective novo (new) match with the brother or the phone?
Why use é (from the verb ser) instead of está (from estar) to say the phone "is" not new?