Breakdown of Nós gostamos do bolo de chocolate.
de
of / from / by (means of transport) / wearing (attire)
nós
we
o bolo
the cake
gostar de
to like
o chocolate
the chocolate
Questions & Answers about Nós gostamos do bolo de chocolate.
Why does it say do bolo instead of just o bolo or de bolo?
In Portuguese, the verb gostar (to like) is almost always followed by the preposition de. You can think of it as saying we are fond 'of'. Because we are talking about the specific cake (o bolo), the preposition de combines with the word o (the) to make the contraction do.
Why is 'chocolate cake' translated as bolo de chocolate?
In bolo de chocolate, why is it just de and not do chocolate?
We use de without a definite article here because chocolate is just describing the flavor of the cake in a general way. If we used do chocolate (of the chocolate), it would sound like the cake was made from one very specific piece of chocolate we were just talking about!
Can I drop the word Nós and just say Gostamos do bolo de chocolate?
Yes! The verb ending in -amos already tells us that the subject is 'we'. Portuguese speakers often drop the subject pronoun (Nós) unless they want to add emphasis, so just starting with Gostamos is completely natural and very common.
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