Questions & Answers about Onde estão os capitães?
How do we get capitães from the singular word for 'captain'?
The singular word is capitão. Nouns ending in -ão can have three different plural endings in Portuguese: -ões, -ãos, or -ães. While -ões is the most common, capitão belongs to a smaller group of words that take -ães, becoming capitães. Another common word that does this is cão (dog), which becomes cães. There is no strict rule for this, so you just have to memorize which words take which ending!
Why does this sentence use estão instead of são for 'are'?
Both verbs mean 'to be', but they are used in different situations. We use estar (and its plural form estão) to talk about the physical location of people or things. Because we are asking where the captains are located right now, we must use estão. We would only use são to talk about permanent traits, like 'they are tall'.
The verb estão also ends in -ão. Does it become plural the same way nouns do?
No! The special plural rules you are learning (changing -ão to -ões, -ãos, or -ães) only apply to nouns and adjectives. For verbs, the -ão ending actually means the verb is already plural for 'they' or 'you all'. The singular form of this verb is está (he/she/it is).
What does the squiggly line (~) over the vowels in estão and capitães do?
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