Breakdown of O gato da mãe não é pequeno.
ser
to be
não
not / no
o gato
the cat
pequeno
small
do
of the / from the (do, da, dos, das)
a mãe
the mother
Questions & Answers about O gato da mãe não é pequeno.
How does da mãe translate to "mother's"?
Portuguese does not use an apostrophe 's' to show possession. Instead, you flip the order and say "the cat of the mother". To do this, you use the preposition de (of).
Why is the word da used here instead of just de?
In Portuguese, we almost always include the word "the" before everyday nouns. So, instead of just using de (of) on its own, we combine it with the feminine article a (the) for the mother. The words de + a shrink together to form the contraction da (of the).
Why does the sentence use pequeno (masculine) when it mentions a mother?
Adjectives must match the gender of the noun they are actually describing. Here, pequeno (small) describes the cat (o gato, which is masculine), not the mother. Therefore, it stays in the masculine form.
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