Learn Portuguese (Portugal): Os quartos não têm luzes.

Os quartos não têm luzes.

The rooms do not have lights.

Breakdown of Os quartos não têm luzes.

the bedroom / the room

a luz

the light

Questions & Answers about Os quartos não têm luzes.

Why is the plural of 'light' luzes instead of just adding an 's'?

The singular word for "light" is luz. In Portuguese, nouns that end in the consonant -z (like luz) form their plural by adding -es to the end instead of just an -s.

Why does têm have a circumflex accent (the little hat) on the 'e'?

That accent is the only thing that tells you the verb is plural! The singular form "has" is tem (no accent), while the plural "have" is têm. Since Os quartos (The rooms) is plural, we must use têm.

Where is the word for 'do' in não têm (do not have)?

Portuguese doesn't use extra "helping verbs" like "do" or "does" to make a sentence negative. To say "do not have", you simply place the word não (not) directly in front of the verb têm.

Why do we use Os at the beginning of the sentence?

Because we are talking about specific rooms ("The rooms"). Since quarto (room) is a masculine word, and there is more than one in this sentence, we need the masculine plural word for "the", which is Os.