O trânsito na cidade é mais lento do que o autocarro.
The traffic in the city is slower than the bus.
Breakdown of O trânsito na cidade é mais lento do que o autocarro.
ser
to be
em
in / on / at
o autocarro
the bus
mais
more
o trânsito
the traffic
do que
than
lento
slow
a cidade
the city
Questions & Answers about O trânsito na cidade é mais lento do que o autocarro.
Why does it say "mais lento" instead of having a single word like "slower"?
In Portuguese, you don't add endings like "-er" to make an adjective comparative. Instead, you always put mais (more) before the adjective. So, "slower" is always mais lento (literally "more slow").
What does "do que" mean here?
do que translates to "than" in English comparisons. When comparing two things (like the traffic and the bus), you use mais... do que to say "more... than". You might sometimes see or hear just que instead of do que, but do que is completely standard and very common in Portugal.
Why is it "na cidade" and not just "em cidade"?
In Portuguese, you usually need the definite article ("the") before nouns. na is the combined form of the preposition em (in) and the feminine article a (the). Because cidade is a feminine noun, "in the city" merges into na cidade.
Would the word "lento" change if we were comparing a feminine noun?
Yes! Adjectives still need to match the gender of the noun they describe, even in a comparison. Here, lento ends in "-o" because it describes the masculine noun o trânsito. If we were describing a feminine word, like a fila (the line), it would become mais lenta.
I have heard the word "ônibus" for bus before. Why are we using "autocarro"?
autocarro is the standard word for a bus in European Portuguese. The word ônibus is used in Brazilian Portuguese, but you will exclusively hear autocarro used by locals in Portugal.
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