Breakdown of Vocês não podem fumar no hospital.
não
not / no
vocês
you (pl)
no
in the / on the / at the (m, f, pl forms: na, nos, nas)
o hospital
the hospital
poder
can / may (verb)
fumar
to smoke
Questions & Answers about Vocês não podem fumar no hospital.
Why does fumar stay in its full form instead of being conjugated?
Wait, doesn't podem usually mean 'they can'? Why is it used for 'you' here?
In European Portuguese, Vocês (plural 'you') always takes the third-person plural verb conjugation. This is the exact same form used for eles and elas (they). So, eles podem means 'they can', and vocês podem means 'you (all) can'.
Where does the negative word não go when we have a modal verb plus an infinitive?
In Portuguese, não is placed directly in front of the conjugated verb. Here, it goes right before podem. You will almost never put it between the two verbs, because podem não fumar would change the meaning entirely to 'you can choose not to smoke'.
Why do we say no hospital instead of em hospital?
no is a mandatory contraction of the preposition em (in/at) and the masculine word for 'the', o. Portuguese uses 'the' before locations more often than English does, so 'in the hospital' requires em + o, which shrinks down to no.
Is the word hospital pronounced exactly like it is in English?
Not quite! While the spelling is identical, the Portuguese pronunciation is different. The letter 'h' at the beginning of a word is always completely silent. Additionally, the spoken stress falls on the very last syllable, sounding more like 'osh-pi-TAL'.
Learn Vocês não podem fumar no hospital and more in Portuguese
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free