Questions & Answers about Ele precisa de mais tempo.
Why is there a de in this sentence? In English, we just say "He needs more time."
In Portuguese, the verb precisar (to need) is almost always followed by the preposition de when you state what is needed. You can think of it as saying "He has need of more time." You must always include de between the verb and the noun that follows it.
Is precisa the dictionary form of the verb?
No, the dictionary form (the infinitive) is precisar. Because it is a regular verb ending in -ar, we drop the -ar and add -a to match the subject Ele (he). This gives us precisa.
I learned that tempo means "weather". Why does it mean "time" here?
The Portuguese word tempo is used for both "weather" and "time". You have to figure out which one it is based on the context of the sentence. In this case, needing "more weather" wouldn't make much sense, so we know it means "more time".
Does the word mais change depending on the gender of the noun that comes after it?