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O homem gosta de jogar futebol.

O homem gosta de jogar futebol.
The man likes to play football.
From Lesson 42:The verb to like (gostar de)·Portuguese (Portugal)

Breakdown of O homem gosta de jogar futebol.

o homem
the man
gostar de
to like
jogar
to play
o futebol
the football

Questions & Answers about O homem gosta de jogar futebol.

Why is there a de between gosta and jogar?
In Portuguese, the verb gostar (to like) needs the preposition de right after it to connect it to the thing or action being liked. Even though we do not say 'likes of to play' in English, you must always include de when stating what someone likes in Portuguese.
Since gosta is conjugated, why does jogar stay in its basic dictionary form?
When you have two verbs working together to express an idea (like liking an action), you only conjugate the first verb to match the subject (o homem gosta). The second verb, which is the action being liked, always stays in its infinitive (dictionary) form, which is jogar here.
Why do we use gosta instead of gosto?
The subject of the sentence is o homem (the man), which is a 'he'. Because of this, we use the third-person singular form of the verb, which is gosta. You would only use gosto if you were talking about yourself, as in eu gosto (I like).
Does jogar mean 'to play' for everything, like playing the piano?
No, the verb jogar translates to 'to play' only when you are talking about sports (like futebol) or games. If the man liked to play a musical instrument, you would have to use a completely different verb: tocar.

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