Learn Portuguese (Portugal): Onde estão os óculos dela?

Onde estão os óculos dela?

Where are her glasses?

Breakdown of Onde estão os óculos dela?

estar

to be (temporary / location)

onde

where

dele

his (forms: dela, deles, delas)

os óculos

the glasses

Questions & Answers about Onde estão os óculos dela?

Why is dela after the glasses instead of before them?

In Portuguese, dela literally means "of her" (a combination of de and ela). So instead of saying "her glasses", the sentence structure is "the glasses of her" (os óculos dela).

Does dela need to be plural to match óculos?

No. Unlike other possessive words, dele and dela always agree with the owner, not the object being owned. Because the owner is one woman, we use dela. The object (óculos) is masculine plural, so it gets the masculine plural article os, but dela stays exactly the same.

Could I use seus instead of dela to say "her glasses"?

You could technically say os seus óculos, but in Portugal, seu and seus are most commonly used to mean "your" when speaking to someone formally (using você). To avoid confusion and clearly say "his" or "her", it is much safer and more natural to put dele or dela after the noun.

Why use estão (from estar) instead of são (from ser)?