Question 1

Why do we use do instead of an apostrophe 's' for "the boy's"?

Accepted Answer

In Portuguese, there is no apostrophe 's' to show possession. Instead, you say "of the" using the preposition de. Because rapaz (boy) is a masculine word, it uses the masculine "the", which is o. When de and o combine, they merge into the contraction do. So, a médica do rapaz literally translates to "the doctor of the boy".

Question 2

How do I know whether to use médica or mico?

Accepted Answer

The word for doctor changes to match the gender of the person who has that job. Since the doctor in this sentence is a woman (a mulher), you must use the feminine form médica. The gender of the boy (o rapaz) does not affect the word for doctor.

Question 3

I learned that we usually don't use "the" or "a" before professions. Why is there an a before médica here?

Accepted Answer

You are right that Portuguese usually drops the article when simply stating someone's job (like saying Ela é médica for "She is a doctor"). However, this sentence talks about a specific doctor. Because we are pointing out exactly whose doctor she is (a médica do rapaz), we need to use the definite article a (the).

Question 4

Why does the word é have an accent mark?

Accepted Answer

The accent mark shows that the vowel is stressed and pronounced with an open "eh" sound. It also completely changes the word's meaning: é means "is" (from the verb ser), while e without an accent means "and" (which sounds different in Portugal, closer to a short "ee").

A mulher é a médica do rapaz.

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