Breakdown of Onde está o passaporte dele?
estar
to be (temporary / location)
onde
where
o passaporte
the passport
dele
his (forms: dela, deles, delas)
Questions & Answers about Onde está o passaporte dele?
Why is the word order o passaporte dele instead of o dele passaporte?
In Portuguese, possessive words formed with de (like dele, which means 'his' or 'of him') always come after the noun. You are literally asking 'Where is the passport of him?'.
What exactly is the word dele made of?
It is a mandatory contraction of the preposition de (of) and the pronoun ele (he or him). Whenever these two words are next to each other, they must combine into dele.
Why do we need the word o before passaporte?
In English, you just say 'his passport', but because the Portuguese phrasing translates literally to 'the passport of him', you must include the definite article o (the) before the masculine noun passaporte.
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