Breakdown of O amigo da irmã é americano?
ser
to be
o amigo
the friend (m)
americano
American
do
of the / from the (do, da, dos, das)
a irmã
the sister
Questions & Answers about O amigo da irmã é americano?
Why does the sentence use da instead of de?
In English, we use an apostrophe for possession (like "the sister's friend"). In Portuguese, we use the structure "the friend of the sister". Here, da is a contraction combining the preposition de (of) and the feminine article a (the) that goes with irmã. So, da literally means "of the".
How would this change if it was the brother's friend instead of the sister's?
You would change da irmã to do irmão. The word do is the masculine equivalent of da, combining the preposition de (of) with the masculine article o (the).
Why doesn't the word order change to make this a question?
Unlike English, which often flips the subject and verb to ask a question (like "Is the friend...?"), Portuguese usually keeps the exact same word order as a regular statement. You simply raise your pitch at the end of the sentence when speaking.
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