Breakdown of O professor está no escritório agora?
o professor
the teacher (m)
estar
to be (temporary / location)
agora
now
no
in the / on the / at the (m, f, pl forms: na, nos, nas)
Questions & Answers about O professor está no escritório agora?
Why is it no escritório instead of em o escritório?
In Portuguese, the preposition em (meaning "in", "on", or "at") almost always merges with the definite article that follows it. When you combine em with the masculine "the" (o), they contract to form no. Since escritório is a masculine noun, we say no escritório ("in the office").
Why do we use está for "is" instead of é?
The words are in the exact same order as a normal statement. How do we form questions in Portuguese?
Unlike in English where we flip the word order ("The teacher is..." becomes "Is the teacher...?"), in Portuguese you just keep the standard statement word order: O professor está no escritório agora. To make it a question, you simply add a question mark at the end in writing, and raise the pitch of your voice at the end of the sentence when speaking.
How would this sentence change if the teacher were a woman?