Ela perguntou o que nós comprámos.

Breakdown of Ela perguntou o que nós comprámos.

ela
she
o que
what
nós
we
comprar
to buy
perguntar
to ask

Questions & Answers about Ela perguntou o que nós comprámos.

How did we make perguntar (to ask) into the past tense perguntou?
For regular -ar verbs in the ele/ela/você (he/she/you formal) form of the simple past, you drop the -ar ending and add -ou. That turns perguntar into perguntou.
Why is there an accent mark on comprámos?
In European Portuguese, the accent shows that this is the past tense (we bought). Without the accent, compramos is the present tense (we buy). The accent tells you the action already happened!
Does the accent on comprámos change how the word is pronounced?
Yes, it changes the vowel sound. The á with the accent is an open A sound (similar to the 'a' in 'father'). The present tense compramos without the accent has a closed, more muffled A sound.
Why does the sentence use o que instead of just que for 'what'?
When 'what' stands alone as a pronoun meaning 'the thing that' (as in 'she asked the thing that we bought'), Portuguese uses the phrase o que. Using just que here would sound incomplete.

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