Breakdown of Ela está doente e não vai à praia.
e
and
não
not / no
ela
she
estar
to be (temporary / location)
doente
sick
à
at the (fem. sg.) / to the (fem. sg.)
ir
to go
a praia
the beach
Questions & Answers about Ela está doente e não vai à praia.
Why does the Portuguese sentence say vai when the English translation says "is going"?
vai is the "she" form of the irregular verb ir (to go). Portuguese doesn't usually use a separate "is doing something" structure like English does for present actions. The simple present tense vai covers both "she goes" and "she is going".
What is the word à with the backwards accent?
à is a contraction. When the verb ir (to go) is followed by a destination, it uses the preposition a (to). Because praia (beach) is a feminine noun, it needs the feminine word for "the", which is also a. Instead of writing a a, they combine into à (to the). The accent just shows that the two a's merged together.
We learned that é means "is", so why does this sentence use está?
Why does não come before the verb instead of after it?
In Portuguese, negative words like não (not/no) are always placed directly before the verb they change. So instead of "is not going", the word order translates more closely to "not goes" (não vai).
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