Breakdown of Há quatro livros e cinco cadernos na mesa.
e
and
o livro
the book
a mesa
the table
o caderno
the notebook
haver
to be (there is / there are)
em
in / on / at
quatro
four
cinco
five
Questions & Answers about Há quatro livros e cinco cadernos na mesa.
Do the numbers quatro and cinco change if I count feminine objects instead?
No, the numbers from 3 to 10 are completely fixed. While the numbers 1 and 2 change depending on whether a word is masculine or feminine (like um vs. uma), quatro and cinco will always look exactly like this, whether you are counting masculine livros or feminine words like mesas.
Since there are multiple books and notebooks, why don't we use a plural form of há?
Why does the sentence use na to mean "on the"?
The word na is a contraction (a squished-together word) of em (which can mean "in", "on", or "at") and a (the feminine word for "the"). Because mesa (table) is a feminine word, Portuguese combines em + a into na.
How should I pronounce the word e (and) in the middle of this sentence?
When e means "and", it is pronounced similar to the "ee" in the English word "sheep", but slightly shorter. It does not sound like the English letter "A". In this sentence, it blends smoothly to link the two groups of items together.
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