Word
Ele é menos preguiçoso do que o teu irmão.
Meaning
He is less lazy than your brother.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Ele é menos preguiçoso do que o teu irmão.
ser
to be
ele
he
o irmão
the brother
teu
your (informal, m/f/pl: teu, tua, teus, tuas)
Questions & Answers about Ele é menos preguiçoso do que o teu irmão.
How do you form the "less ... than" comparison in this sentence?
To say someone is "less [adjective] than" someone else, we use the structure menos + adjective + do que. Here, we have menos (less), preguiçoso (lazy), and do que (than). You might sometimes hear people just say que instead of do que, which is also correct, but do que is very common and natural in European Portuguese.
Would the word preguiçoso change if we were talking about a woman?
Yes. Adjectives must match the gender of the person they describe. Because Ele (He) is masculine, we use the masculine form preguiçoso. If the sentence started with Ela (She), it would change to match her: Ela é menos preguiçosa.
Why do we need the word o before teu irmão?
In European Portuguese, you almost always put a definite article like o (the) before a possessive word like teu (your). So, you literally say "the your brother" (o teu irmão). Because irmão is a masculine singular noun, we use the masculine singular article o.
Why does the sentence use é instead of está for the verb "is"?