Learn Portuguese (Portugal): Não posso trabalhar porque o computador está estragado. - I cannot work because the computer is broken.

Não posso trabalhar porque o computador está estragado.

I cannot work because the computer is broken.

Breakdown of Não posso trabalhar porque o computador está estragado.

não

not / no

estar

to be (temporary / location)

Questions & Answers about Não posso trabalhar porque o computador está estragado.

Does porque mean 'because' or 'why' here?

In this sentence, porque is a conjunction meaning 'because', linking the reason to the action. In Portuguese, porque is also used to ask 'why' at the beginning or middle of a question. If you need to ask 'why' at the very end of a sentence, the spelling changes to porquê.

Why is the second verb trabalhar in its dictionary form?

When you have two verbs working together like this, only the first one changes to match the person doing the action. Posso is already conjugated to mean 'I can', so the second verb trabalhar (to work) stays in its basic, unconjugated form (the infinitive).

Why do we use está for 'is' instead of é?

We use está (from the verb estar) because the computer being broken is a temporary state or condition. Hopefully, it can be fixed! If we used é (from the verb ser), it would sound like the computer is permanently and inherently a broken thing by nature.

Would estragado change if the broken item was a feminine word?

Yes! Estragado (broken) describes the noun, so its ending must match the noun's gender. Since o computador is masculine, it ends in -o. If a feminine object were broken, like a printer (a impressora), you would say it está estragada.