Question 1

How do we know to use televisões instead of another plural ending like -ãos?

Accepted Answer

The singular word is televisão. While words ending in -ão can have different plural endings (-ões, -ãos, or -ães), the vast majority of them take -ões. A helpful tip: if a Portuguese word translates to an English word ending in "-tion" or "-sion" (like television, action, nation), it almost always takes the -ões plural (televisões, ações, nações).

Question 2

Why does the verb têm have an accent mark?

Accepted Answer

The circumflex accent (the little hat) shows that this is the plural form of the verb ter (to have). For singular subjects (like ele, ela, or você), you use tem without the accent. Because the subject here is the plural vocês, you must use têm.

Question 3

Why is it nos quartos instead of just em os quartos?

Accepted Answer

In Portuguese, the preposition em (in/on/at) always combines with definite articles (o, a, os, as) when they are next to each other. Here, em merges with the masculine plural article os (the) to create the contraction nos (in the).

Question 4

Does quartos refer to any kind of room in a building?

Accepted Answer

Usually, no. While it can broadly mean "rooms" in a hotel context (like in this sentence), a quarto specifically means a bedroom. If you were talking about rooms in a house in general, you would more likely use a word like divisão, or refer to the specific rooms like sala (living room).

Vocês têm televisões nos quartos?

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