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Eles ficam em casa porque estão ocupados.

Eles ficam em casa porque estão ocupados.
They stay at home because they are busy.
From Lesson 56:Coordinating conjunctions (e, mas, ou, porque)·Portuguese (Portugal)

Questions & Answers about Eles ficam em casa porque estão ocupados.

Is porque used for both "because" and "why"?
In this sentence, porque (written as one word) means "because" and joins the two parts of the sentence together. To ask "why" in a question, you usually write it as two separate words: por que.
Doesn't the verb ficar mean "to be located"? Why does it mean "stay" here?
Ficar is a very flexible verb! While it is used to talk about the location of a place, its primary meaning is "to stay" or "to remain". Here, eles ficam simply means "they stay".
Why do we say em casa instead of na casa?
Em casa translates to the general idea of "at home". Just like in English, we don't use the word "the" here. If you said na casa (which combines em + a), it would mean "in the house", sounding like you are pointing out a specific physical building rather than the concept of being at home.
Why do we use estão instead of são for "are"?
We use estão (from the verb estar) because being busy is a temporary condition. They are busy right now, but not forever. We also make sure the adjective matches: ocupados ends in -os because the subject eles is masculine and plural.

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